Germany’s seasonally adjusted retail-sales figure surged 3.3 percent month-on-month in January to its highest level since October 2016, rebounding sharply from a downwardly revised -3.1 percent in December, according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany.
The unemployment rate in the United States climbed to 4.0 percent in January, the highest since June 2018 and marginally higher than the 3.9 percent recorded in December of last year.
There have been 22 federal government shutdowns in the United States since 1979, with three last year alone, including the most recent 35-day partial shutdown, which came into effect on December 22, 2018. Considered the longest in US history
China’s factory orders fell for the second month in a row, with the Caixin/Markit Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) indicating further contraction in the country’s manufacturing activity in January.
Brazil’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed to $0.82 billion in December 2018 from $2.07 billion a year earlier on the back of a widening trade surplus in goods, even as the country’s services industry recorded an annual deficit.
The pound sterling rebounded from its April 2017 low after the Brexit deal of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party was defeated by a record margin of 230 votes in the House of Commons on January 3 of this year.
The manufacturing sector in the United States slowed for the second straight month, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM’s) PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) survey in October.
Japan’s international-trade balance jumped to a whopping ¥139.56-billion surplus in September, after registering two successive months of deficits. The trade numbers came in better than Street expectations of a ¥50-billion deficit but narrowed considerably from the ¥654-billion surplus
US factory orders surged by $11.5 billion, or 2.3 percent, in August to $510.5 billion, the largest month-on-month increase since September 2017, beating analysts’ expectations of a 2.1-percent growth. On a year-on-year basis, orders increased 8.6 percent.
Consumer prices in the United Kingdom jumped 0.7 percent in August, after remaining flat for the previous two months, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).