Menu

Americans are more optimistic about their home buying prospects than residents of other countries, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying now is a good time to buy a home, according to the new Genworth International Mortgage Trends Report. The local economic outlook, concerns about property affordability and worries about future unemployment are among the issues listed by survey respondents as obstacles to their purchasing a home.

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $30.07 per hour worked in March 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Wages and salaries averaged $20.91 per hour worked and accounted for 69.6 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $9.15 and accounted for the remaining 30.4 percent. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $28.10 per hour worked in March 2011. Total employer compensation costs for State and local government workers averaged $40.54 per hour worked in March 2011.

Consumer confidence rose last week for the third consecutive time as lower gasoline prices lifted Americans’ outlook on their finances. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index climbed to minus 45.9 in the period to June 5, the best showing since the end of April, from the prior week’s minus 47.1. Across income groups, sentiment improved the most among those making less than $50,000 a year.

Gas prices started a slow but steady decline at the end of May in many areas, but the still-high cost kept car shoppers focused more on fuel-efficient vehicles than their usual trucks and SUVs. According to AutoTrader.com's monthly Trend Engine report, which provides analysis of consumer shopping behavior on the site, many of the trends from April 2011 remained steady in May, from the still-strong interest in smaller cars and the continuing rise in average asking prices across the lists of most-searched new, used and Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) vehicles.

Gallup and Healthways, Inc. released the monthly Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index® (WBI) Report for May 2011. The WBI composite score of 66.5 remained relatively unchanged from April’s score of 66.2.

Mortgage rates continue to fall amid disappointing economic news. The benchmark conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate is now 4.65 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.39 discount and origination points.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® for Japan decreased 2.1 percent in April. The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® decreased 0.3 percent in April.

Worldwide PC unit growth is projected to be slightly weaker in 2011 than the previous projection, according to Gartner, Inc.'s latest forecast. PC shipments are expected to grow 9.3 percent in 2011, reaching 385 million units. This is slightly lower than Gartner's previous projection of 10.5 percent growth for this year.

EU27 trade in goods with Russia partly recovered in 2010, after the sharp drop recorded in 2009 which interrupted a long period of growth. EU27 exports to Russia fell from 105 billion euro in 2008 to 66 bn in 2009, then rose to 87 bn in 2010. Imports decreased from 178 bn in 2008 to 118 bn in 2009, then increased to 158 bn in 2010. As a result, the EU27 trade deficit with Russia increased from 52 bn euro in 2009 to 72 bn in 2010. In 2010, Russia was the EU27's third most important trading partner after the USA and China, accounting for 6% of EU27 exports and 11% of EU27 imports.

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released a study of how Internet users spend their time online in Greater China (defined as Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong) based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. The report found that Portals commanded the largest share of online minutes, accounting for 24.4 percent of total time in Greater China, followed by the Entertainment, Search/Navigation, Social Networking and Retail site categories. These five categories combined accounted for half of all time spent online in Greater China during April. Separately, comScore also announced the appointment of Xinyu Huang to the position of senior vice president of Greater China.