Now that policy makers worldwide have finally stepped in to stop the bleeding, we have had a relief rally of monumental proportions. Most global indices were deep into oversold territory, meaning that there was lots of pent-up demand for a turn to the upside. A big rally to the upside was baked into [...]

The numbers on auto sales were unbelievably bad for September — Ford down 34%. Honda down 24%, Toyota down 32%, Nissan down 37%. Amazingly, G.M. was at the head of the pack with sales down only 16 percent. (I guess those Escalade Hybrids are selling like hot cakes).
Blame this one on the credit crunch [...]

The ISM Manufacturing survey, a widely-followed gauge of manufacturing activity in the United States, plunged in September from a near-recession reading of 49.9 in August to the deep recessionary level of 43.5. This shockingly steep fall is yet another sign that the U.S. is in recession.Last Thursday a foreshadowing of the ISM survey came [...]

Economists had expected the durable goods report for August 2008 to be weak, but the report showing durable goods orders down 4.5% was much weaker than expected.
While I do believe that the United States is in recession and the durable goods report is considered a key indicator of future manufacturing activity, I do not put [...]

The real economy in the U.S. is already in recession, even as we fight the effects of a financial market meltdown. Industrial production numbers for the United States came out and it was down a massive 1.1% for August. That means a negative number for GDP in Q3 is all but assured.
While we [...]

The FT reports:
The eurozone economy has shown fresh signs of spluttering, with German industrial production dropping unexpectedly sharply in May – the strongest monthly fall since August 1997.-FT, 7 Jul 2008
This is the latest sign in a string of reports that point to a deepening slowdown in the heart of Europe. Just [...]

The latest bit out from the U.S. is that the services sector has unexpectedly contracted.
From Bloomberg News:
U.S. service industries unexpectedly contracted in June as a gauge of prices soared to a record and employment reached an all-time low.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non- manufacturing businesses, which make up almost 90 percent of the [...]

After finding that UK and European manufacturing are in the doldrums, today we hear that UK services are also contracting. This surely must mean that the UK is in or will soon be in recession.
From Bloomberg News:
U.K. services from airlines to the finance industry contracted last month by the most since October 2001 and [...]

The well-deserved euphoria over the European Championship in football has brought welcome relief to Spanish consumers, weighed down by a slow economy. However, global economies have not decoupled from the U.S. slowdown. European economies are suffering, Denmark having already declared recession.
In this piece I am going to take a look at the Spanish economy and [...]

Industrial production and capacity utilization numbers were released by the Fed this morning. These numbers are important because production is one of five factors the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) looks at to judge recessions. The numbers were not good.

Production was down y-o-y for the first time since May 2002 besides a [...]