Morning Market Tidbits: The US is more energy intensive, but less price sensitive than Europe

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Morning Market Tidbits: The US is more energy intensive, but less price sensitive than Europe

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Morning Market Tidbits

The US is more energy intensive, but less

price sensitive than Europe

Key takeaways 19 May 2026

Economics• The US is more resilient to the energy shock than Europe despite the US economy

United States

economy being more energy intensive.

• The energy shock is a negative terms of trade shock for Europe, and energy Antonio Gabriel

Global Economist

expenditures are lower in the US than in Europe. BofAS

antonio.gabriel@bofa.com

• Today the focus will be on the ADP weekly jobs print, pending home sales, and

US Economics

comments from Williams and Paulson. BofAS

See Team Page for List of Analysts

What Matters Today: The US is more energy intensive than Europe but it spends less on

energy, meaning Europe is still harder hit by the energy shock

US and developed Europe energy intensity (exajoules per $10M of GDP) vs. US PCE and Euro area

HICP energy weights (pp, lhs) HICP: Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices

1.4 12.0 PCE: Personal Consumption Expenditures

1.2 10.0

1.0

8.0

0.8

6.0

0.6

4.0

0.4

2.0 0.2

0.0 0.0

1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014 2017 2020 2023

US energy intensity Europe energy intensity

US PCE energy weight (rhs) Euro area HICP energy weight (rhs)

Source: BofA Global Research, Haver, Energy Institute

Note: Energy intensity is measured as exajoules per $10M of GDP at market exchange rates and constant 2015 dollars.

BofA GLOBAL RESEARCH

The US is more resilient than Europe to the energy shock

Why are growth and inflation in Europe more sensitive to oil prices if the economy is

less energy intensive? First, the US has become a net energy exporter in recent years,