Trade Deficit

June 5 2025 The trade deficit narrowed by $76.7 billion in April to -$61.6 billion after having widened by $16.3 billion in March.  Firms raced to import goods in the first three months of the year prior to the imposition of tariffs, but in April the deficit narrowed...

Initial Unemployment Claims

June 5, 2025 Initial unemployment claims rose 8 thousand in the week ending May 31 to 247 thousand after climbing 13 thousand in the previous week.    There is little evidence that the labor market has been affected by layoffs thus far.  However, we know that some...

ADP Employment

June 4, 2025 As shown above the ADP survey shows a respectable correlation with the private sector portion of the payroll employment data to be released a couple of days later.  And well it should.  ADP, or Automatic Data Processing, Inc. is a provider of...

Car and Truck Sales

June 3, 2025 Unit car and truck sales plunged 9.3% in May to 15.646 million after having declined 3.2% in April and having surged by 11.7% in March.  Most of the jump in sales in March reflects buyers trying to purchase their new car before tariffs went into effect. ...