The US employment report for June showed a larger than expected decline in employment. Although some of this was due to the unwinding of temporary census-related hires by the federal government, subtr...

Payroll employment fell 467,000 in June, a bigger slide relative to the 365,000 drop expected within financial markets going into the report. This was up from May's surprisingly small drop of 322,000 ...

Non-farm employment fell 467,000 with widespread declines in many sectors especially for the ongoing structural change in manufacturing. The job losses are consistent with our expectations for modest ...

An ISM index at 44.8 - and still rising - is consistent with our long-held view that the economy should return to positive growth in the coming months. A huge gap between production growth and growth ...

June's ISM suggests the second quarter ended with modest upside momentum. Auto production should kick-start the third quarter. However, the orders index was disappointing and suggests that the recover...

According to the Tankan business survey compiled by Bank of Japan business conditions in Q2 improved more than expected by enterprises in Q1 and the surveyed enterprises expect the improvements in bus...

The Consumer Confidence Index gave back part of its recent gains in June, falling 5.5 points to 49.3. Both the present situation and expectations series fell, with the present situation series giving ...

The Chicago Business Barometer rebounded in June to 39.9, jumping 5.0 points and nearly erasing the May decline. All component indices increased while increases for both new orders and order backlog s...

GDP output fell an expected 0.1% in April, which represented an easing from the 0.3% drop in March and matches the 0.1% contraction in February. These recent declines indicate a marked improvement fro...

Another batch of economic data was released overnight. JMMA manufacturing PMI increased less than we expected. In light of industrial production growing at record pace in April and May and very strong...

Industrial production in May increased for the third month in a row and just managed to match the record increase in industrial production set in the previous month. According to productions plans, ma...

Personal consumer expenditure (PCE) rose an expected 0.3% in May following unchanged spending in April (previously reported as down 0.1%). Spending was supported by the 1.4% jump in personal income wi...

Income and spending both moved higher in May, with income up 1.4 percent on the month. Gains in disposable income (1.6 percent on the month) were largely the result of increased social benefit payment...

The final (third) estimate of the decline in first-quarter GDP was moderated once again, this time to 5.5% from the preliminary (second) estimate of 5.7% and the advance (first) estimate of 6.1%. Expe...

New homes sales in the United States pulled back 0.6% in May to 342,000 units with April's initially reported 352,000 revised down to 344,000. Although the report disappointed expectations of a 2.3% i...

Surprisingly good news emerged from the May durable goods new orders report, showing an unexpected and very strong gain of 1.8% in the month. Expectations had been for a decline of 0.9%. This increase...

Sales of new homes slid to 342,000 units at an annual pace in May, off of a downwardly revised level of 344,000 in April. Over the last three months the net revision was a loss of 32,000 units. While ...

In a welcome surprise, durable goods orders at U.S. manufacturers jumped 1.8 percent in May. The consensus was looking for a decline of roughly one percent. After last month’s 1.8 percent gain, this r...

On the surface today's foreign data may look a little disappointing, but the detail remains strong. As there were two working days less in May this year compared with last year we really should not pl...

Existing home sales in the United States rose 2.4% in May to 4.77 million annualized units. Expectations were for a slightly stronger gain of 3% to 4.82 million units from April's 4.66 (revised from 4...

Sales of existing homes rose to 4.77M units at an annual rate in May, as the portion of distressed sales retreated. Distressed or foreclosure-related sales accounted for "just" 33 percent of activity ...

Euroland flash PMI disappointed today as the composite index rose moderately to 44.4 in June from 44.0 in April while consensus had expected an increase to 45.2 and we had anticipated an increase to 4...

The Ifo economic expectations indicator increased sharply for the sixth month in a row to 89.5 in June from 85.9 in April. Consensus had expected an increase to 87.0 and we expected 87.7 The overall I...

Canadian retail sales slumped in April, marking the first month in four that sales fell. Sales dropped 0.8%, defying forecasts for a 0.1% increase. In volume terms, sales were also weaker, falling by ...

The Philadelphia Fed’s general activity index jumped 20.4 points to -2.2 in June, much better than expected. The new orders and shipments indices also jumped, suggesting a possible rise in the June IS...

The Leading Economic Index (LEI) gained 1.2 percent exceeding last month's gain and posting the first back-to-back monthly increase in almost three years. This report is consistent with our forecast t...

Canada's headline inflation rate rose by 0.7% in May, a much steeper increase than the market forecast for a 0.4% rise. Even with this hefty monthly gain, the annual inflation rate continued to modera...

Consumer prices in May showed a modest rise of 0.1% compared to an expected increase of 0.3%. This contributed to the year-over-year rate sinking further into negative territory, declining 1.3% relati...

U.S. consumer prices were much softer than expected in May, with the headline index rising by only 0.1% M/M (0.096% M/M at 3 decimal places) following the flat print the month before. This was much le...

Foreign trade data for April was somewhat disappointing, though not a complete surprise. Exports have been in a stabilisation phase since February after having been in freefall. We project that export...

Both the overall and core CPI rose just 0.1 percent in May, continuing the recent moderating trend in inflation. The overall CPI has declined at a 0.2 percent rate over the past three months and is do...

The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.2 percent in May, which was below expectations. The increase was driven by a 13.9 percent spike in gasoline prices. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy price...

U.S. industrial production sank by 1.1% in May, slightly more than forecast, and the capacity utilization rate slumped to 68.3%, marking a new record low for the series. April was revised to show a 0....

Housing starts came in stronger than expected in May, rising 17.2% to an annualized 532,000 compared to an expected level of 485,000. This increase more than retraced the 12.9% drop in April, although...

Housing starts rose more than expected in May, with overall starts rising 17.2 percent to a 532,000-unit pace. About two-thirds of May's increase was in multi-family units, which fell sharply in April...

The ZEW economic expectations indicator increased sharply to 44.8 in June (consensus 35.0) from 31.1 in April. Forecasts from 40 analysts ranged from 25 to 45. We were the outlier on the upside. It is...

The net amount of long-term financial investment flowing into U.S. equity, note, and bond markets, minus the amount of U.S. investment heading abroad dropped to $11.2b in April, compared to the rate o...

Manufacturing sales fell 0.1% in April following a downwardly revised 3.1% drop in March (originally reported as down 2.7%). The decline was less pronounced than market expectations of a 1.8% plunge. ...

The Empire index of general business conditions deteriorated in June, signaling an increase in the pace of decline for the manufacturing sector. However, the forward-looking component that measures ge...

A spike in gasoline sales of 3.6% m/m, as higher prices at the pump boosted nominal sales, was a big factor in the rise in retail sales. Auto sales rebounded as well, rising 0.5% m/m. However, it look...

Retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers drew down inventories at a 1.1 percent pace in April, which represents one more month of progress in an extremely long process, as businesses got caught with f...

U.S. consumers increased their retail purchases by 0.5% in May after sales contracted by 0.2% in April (revised from the initially reported 0.4% decline). Sales of autos and parts posted a 0.5% rise, ...

Sales at the nation's retailers increased 0.5 percent in May, pushed higher by rising gasoline prices as well as a gain in the beleaguered building materials sector. Our preferred 'core' series which ...

The Fed's Beige Book prepared based on data reported prior to June 2 reported that economic conditions remained weak or worsened through May. However five of the Fed districts saw the downward trend i...

The U.S. trade balance deteriorated to -US$29.2 billion in April following March's -US$28.5 billion (revised from -US$27.6 billion). Excluding petroleum, the trade balance deteriorated to -US$24.2 bil...

Canada's trade balance fell to -C$0.2 billion in April after a C$1 billion reading (revised from C$ 1.1 billion) in March. Expectations were for a C$1 billion reading. Exports fell 5.1% after a 2% dr...

Machinery orders in April declined by more than expected. Domestic machinery orders excluding volatile items such as ships dropped by more than 5% m/m in April following a slight contraction in March....

Inventories of merchant wholesalers declined 1.4 percent in April, marking the eighth straight month of declines. The revision to March makes it the largest inventory decline on record. Sales decrease...

Canadian housing starts showed welcome signs of improvement in May, rising to 128,400 annualized from April’s 117,600. The increase was broadly based across building types. Both urban singles starts a...

US May nonfarm payroll declined by 345K, the market had expected a decline of 520K. This marks the smallest decline in US nonfarm payrolls since September 2008 and was half the average monthly decline...