Brent crude futures increased 15% yesterday, which was one of the largest single-day jumps in history. The decline in Saudi production due to the Saturday attack on one of the world’s largest oil processing facilities amounts to an estimated 5% of…
The stock market kept its winning streak going for a third straight week, and again it was mainly related to rising hopes of progress with U.S.-China trade talks. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank beat the U.S. Fed to the rate-reduction punch by lowering…
Last week was a light one for new economic data, but the news on home sales this summer looks encouraging with the pace of sales finally seeing gains year over year as a result of lower mortgage rates. U.S.-China trade: The…
Annual per capita miles driven in the United States has plateaued since the Great Recession. In the mid-2000s miles driven peaked at around 13,200 per capita (population aged 16+) then decreased every year between 2006 and 2014. A tepid, flat-income…
Last week was a week filled with new economic data and financial market volatility. More than half of the week’s new data point to continued strength and even promising improving trends supportive of growth in the U.S. economy. The other…
Jonathan Smoke, Chief Economist at Cox Automotive, provides a mid-year check-up on the Key Trends predicted to have the greatest impact on the automotive industry in 2019. At the year’s halfway mark, here’s an assessment of those macroeconomic trends and…
It was a relatively quiet week for new economic data but featured plenty of stock market volatility amidst continued trade war drama. Consumer credit growth slows: Consumer credit growth is slowing as credit card borrowing is declining and auto lending is…
Job growth is slowing as the underemployment rate declines to near historic lows, but job creation in July was exactly in line with the average monthly creation this year and what was expected. Wages are growing again, but hours worked…
Today’s rate cut was viewed by the market as a certainty. The Fed had ample opportunities to set different expectations, but only affirmed the market’s view at every turn. In terms of policy, what mattered more today was the amount of…
The economy is still growing, thanks primarily to the consumer and an expanding Federal deficit. The first estimate of real GDP growth in the second quarter was 2.1%, which was better than expected but indeed a slowdown from Q1 and…
