A gauge of U.S. service industries jumped to a four-month high in June and showed the resumption of growth as the economy reopened more broadly from pandemic-induced lockdowns. The Institute for Supply Management said Monday that its non-manufacturing index soared a record 11.7 points to 57.1 last month. Readings above 50 indicate growth, and the June figure exceeded the 50.2 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The rebound at service providers follows a similar jump in the group™s manufacturing gauge and indicates that the economy is recovering from its...
The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter at its sharpest pace since the Great Recession as stringent measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus almost shut down the country, ending the longest expansion in the nation's history. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product fell at a 4.8% annualized rate in the January-to-March period after expanding at a 2.1% rate in the final three months of 2019. Economists in a Reuters poll had been looking for a GDP contraction of 4%, though estimates ranged to as low as negative 15%. The decline reflected a plunge in economic...
The confidence Americans have in the economy experienced the biggest plunge in April in modern times as the coronavirus ravaged Main Street and Wall Street. But they are also starting to think the worst might be over. The consumer confidence index sank this month to 86.9 points from a revised 118.8 in March, according to the nonprofit Conference Board, publisher of the report, a bit worse than economists polled by MarketWatch expected. Americans were very pessimistic about whats happening in the country right now, but they were more hopeful that the economy would begin to recover in the...
Orders for durable goods sank 14.4% in March largely because of a decline in demand for big-ticket items such as new cars and trucks with the coronavirus sweeping across the country. The sharp decline in demand last month is likely to be the first of series of historically poor numbers with much of the U.S. economy shut down and international trade severely disrupted. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast a 12.8% decline in orders for long-lasting products made to last at least three years. If cars and planes are stripped out, orders were actually fell just 0.2%. Still, every...
The headline German IFO Business Climate Index came in at 74.3 in April, weaker than last month's 85.9 and missing the consensus estimates pointing to a reading of 80.0. Meanwhile, the Current Economic Assessment arrived at 79.5 points in the reported month as compared to last month's 92.9 and 81.0 anticipated. On the other hand, the IFO Expectations Index “ indicating firms' projections for the next six months, came in at 69.4 for April, down from the previous months 79.5 reading and worse than the market expectations of 75.0. The headline IFO business climate index was rebased and...
British retail sales fell by the most on record in March, official figures showed on Friday, reflecting the hit from the coronavirus shutdown which closed many businesses in the second half of the month. Despite a surge in shopping for food, overall sales volumes plunged by 5.1% in March from February, a bigger fall than a median forecast for a drop of 4.0% in a Reuters poll of economists. It was the sharpest drop since the Office for National Statistics records began in 1996. A longer-running series which excludes fuel sales dropped by the most since it began in 1988, down by 3.7% on the...
A report on the health of China™s manufacturing sector improved in September, although it was still below the line indicating contraction.
The manufacturing purchasing...
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in April as both exports and imports tumbled, highlighting the impact of President Donald Trump™s tariffs even before negotiations with China unraveled and he...
Output from Germany's private sector remained unchanged in June, as a decline in manufacturing was offset by continued growth in services.
A flash reading of the country's composite Purchasing...
A trade deal between the United States and China, separately announced Friday by both countries, will be such a boon for American farmers they will "have to go out and buy much larger tractors,"...