By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor First-quarter growth in the 15-nation Eurozone was weaker than first reported, yet another worrying development for a region already struggling with soaring inflation. The combined Eurozone economy grew by 0.7% in the first quarter compared to the three months prior, revised down from a previous forecast of 0.8%, Eurostat reported. While the figure is still relatively strong, a U.S. slowdown, rampant inflation, and low consumer demand could drag the economy down even further in the second half of the year. The European Commission’s gauge of consumer confidence declined to a level of -17 in June from -15 in May. Economic sentiment declined to 94.9 from 97.6 in May. Much of the decline was attributed to a steep rise in Eurozone inflation, which hit a 16-year high of 4% in June. “The surge in food and energy prices is ...

Article Source: Nonresidential investment has been increasing until 2008Q1, at which time it essentially stalled (-0.2 ppts. annualized in log terms). On the basis of past historical correlations, what's in store? Figure 1: Four quarter growth rate in nonresidential investment (blue) and residential investment (red) lagged one year, calculated as four quarter log difference. Source: BEA GDP release of 29 May 2008, NBER, and author's calculations.Figure 1 depicts the time series for year-on-year nonresidential investment growth, and residential investment growth lagged four quarters. There's an obvious correlation, but clearly it's not a particularly strong one. There are periods where business fixed investment levitates above residential growth, such as the latter part of the 1980s (due to the dollar's depreciation), and during the 1990s, as well as the most recent few quarters. The relationship ...

Today released numbers show good shape for European economies. Germany more than doubled estimations and grew 1.5% in first three months of 2008 (quarter on quarter). Non-seasonally (quarterly basis) GDP grew 1,8%.Another surprise is coming from France. Quarter on quarter growth by 0,6%. Great Britain up by 0,4%.Smaller European economies, Greece +1,1% and Austria +0,8%. But others shrank slightly. Portugal and Spain registered in the negative, -0,2% respectively -0,3%.And how about Central European emerging markets. Czech Republic quarter on quarter +0,9% but non-seasonally still nice growth by 5,4%. Slovakia non-seasonally slow down from 14,3% to 8,7%.http://stockweb.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Lots of Israeli companies reporting earnings. Here are some highlights: Perrigo (PRGO): Tightened up 2008 guidance higher and beat revenues projections. Earnings release here. Early look at the stock is that investors aren’t impressed. See our recent commentary on PRGO’s generic nicotine gum. Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA): Earnings report here. Quarter over quarter growth looks to be 24% and profit down from CoGenesys charge. RRSat (RRST): Smacked yesterday after an earnings release. The 20% drop came after putting up pretty good top lines numbers. Margins came down quite a bit. Alvarion (ALVR): Stock popped after the wireless backhaul firm put up pretty good revenue numbers and a narrower loss. The stock jumped 15%. Earnings report here. See our analysis of the recent turbulence in the wireless market. Ness Technologies (NSTC): Revenues up 27% year-over-year and ...