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comScore, Inc. released an overview of mobile news access across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) using the comScore MobiLens service. The study showed that nearly 37 percent of smartphone users in EU5 reported accessing news sites via an app or browser in January 2012, showing an increase of 74 percent over the past year. For EU5 smartphone users who accessed news sites on a near-daily basis, the growth rate was even stronger at 82 percent. The UK showed the highest penetration with nearly half (46.8 percent) of smartphone users reporting having accessed news sites at least once in the past month.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. increased 0.7 percent in February to 95.5 (2004 = 100), following a 0.2 percent increase in January and a 0.5 percent increase in December.

In the construction sector, seasonally adjusted production fell by 0.8% in the euro area (EA17) and by 4.1% in the EU27 in January 2012, compared with the previous month. In December 2011, production decreased by 1.9% and 3.8% respectively. Compared with January 2011, output in January 2012 dropped by 1.4% in the euro area and by 1.0% in the EU27.

The first estimate for the euro area (EA17) trade in goods balance with the rest of the world in January 2012 gave a 7.6 bn euro deficit, compared with -16.1 bn in January 2011. The December 2011 balance was +9.1 bn, compared with -1.7 bn in December 2010. In January 2012 compared with December 2011, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 1.3% and imports by 2.4%.

Just as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted, the world is becoming more social. There will be 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, a 19.2% increase over 2011, eMarketer predicts - amounting to a substantial share of the world’s entire population.

The number of persons employed decreased by 0.2% in the euro area (EA17) and by 0.1% in the EU27 in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the third quarter of 2011, employment decreased by 0.2% in both zones. These figures are seasonally adjusted.

Hourly labour costs in the euro area (EA17) rose by 2.8% in the year up to the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with 2.6% for the previous quarter. In the EU27, the annual rise was 2.7% up to the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with 2.6% for the previous quarter.

Euro area annual inflation was 2.7% in February 2012, unchanged compared with January. A year earlier the rate was 2.4%. Monthly inflation was 0.5% in February 2012. EU annual inflation was 3.0% in February 2012, up from 2.9% in January. A year earlier the rate was 2.9%. Monthly inflation was 0.5% in February 2012.

In January 2012 compared with December 2011, seasonally adjusted industrial production grew by 0.2% in both the euro area (EA17) and the EU27. In December production fell by 1.1% and 0.8% respectively. In January 2012 compared with January 2011, industrial production dropped by 1.2% in the euro area and by 1.0% in the EU27.

US consumers are some of the biggest users of smartphone and tablet devices in the world, so why is their response to mobile ads so poor? According to Q3 2011 research from Nielsen, smartphone and tablet users in Germany, Italy and the UK responded more favorably to mobile ads than US device owners did. With smartphone ads, in particular, users in Germany, Italy and the UK were significantly more likely than users in the US to take actions - click on ads, conduct research or make purchases.