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The most recent data from the widely-followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices was made available today. These data from July show house prices in the U.S. increasing for the third month in a row, suggesting that house prices have stabilized. Moreover, the trend was broad-based with only Seattle and Las Vegas showing house price declines in [...]

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In 2002, the global economy was weak and equity markets around the world were at multi-year lows following the greatest equity bubble and bust in world history. Many policy makers including Alan Greenspan, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, feared a deflationary spiral of Great Depression proportions resulting from the stock market collapse.
To prevent such [...]

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The U.S. economy lost 216,000 jobs in August according to figures released by the Department of Labor. This brought the unemployment rate up to 9.7% from 9.4% in July.  Despite the large rise in the headline unemployment rate (U-3), the figure for job losses was in line with expectations and dovetailed with the figures released [...]

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The Department of Labor reported that jobless claims in the latest week decreased 4,000 from a revised 574,000 in the previous week.  The figure was higher than analysts anticipated. Initially, the last week was reported as 570,000.
The 4-week average is now 571,250, marking the eighth consecutive week that initial claims for unemployment insurance have [...]

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The August 2009 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business was released and the widely followed PMI Index came in ahead of expectations at 52.9. Expectations were for 50.5. As 50 marks the divide between contraction and expansion, this survey indicates that U.S. manufacturing is expanding for the first time in years.
This is the strongest reading since [...]

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The U.S. Department of Labor released the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report showing that initial jobless claims decreased 10,000 in the latest week to 570,000 from an upwardly revised 580,000 the week prior. The 4-week moving average is now 566,250, less than 100,000 off the April peak.
Since the week ended Jul. 18, the average initial [...]

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Toyota, now the world’s largest automaker, has said it would halt production at a plant in Aichi prefecture in Japan, reducing total output by a massive 220,000 cars.  This should be seen as a recognition of the over-capacity tat exists in the auto sector despite other recent upbeat news.
Toyota raised its parent-only production target for [...]

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You may have heard the reports that US auto dealers were swamped on Monday night as the car scrappage scheme dubbed “Cash for Clunkers” expired. American taxpayers were eligible for a tax rebate of up to $4500 for trading in an older gas guzzler for a new vehicle.  And all evidence shows that they took [...]

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The data from the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for June 2009 were released at 9AM ET, showing that house prices in the US increased for the second consecutive month.  Last month marked the first month since July 2006 that prices rose in the US. While prices should rise during the spring and summer, the most [...]

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The data from the most recent Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report are not particularly bullish. Claims are up for the second week in a row, dragging the 4-week average up with them. Year over-year comparisons continue to drop, but the two week increase is certainly a sign that employment is very much a weak link [...]