Recent Updates
- China: GDP (Q1)
- Euro area: CSPP Holdings Detail (Q1)
- US: Consumer Sentiment (Apr-prelim), New Residential Constr (Mar)
- Hong Kong: Personal Bankruptcy Petitions, Clearing
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Housing Affordability Fell Back in February, but Still in Recent Range
The NAR U.S. Fixed Rate Mortgage Housing Affordability Index decreased 7.6% (-1.4% y/y) in February to 173.1...
European New Car Registrations Remarkably Strong Yet Forgettable
Car registrations are not going to be the only statistic that bears these dual and seemingly dueling characteristics...
U.S. Retail Sales Soar in March
Total retail sales including food service and drinking establishments increased 9.8% (27.7% y/y) during March...
U.S. Industrial Production Rebounded in March
Industrial production rebounded in March, rising 1.4% m/m (+1.0% y/y)...
U.S. Home Builder Index Edges Higher in April
The NAHB-Wells Fargo Composite Housing Market Index rose 1.2% to 83 during April...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Charles Steindel April 10, 2020
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank has issued estimates of state coincident indexes for February. This is essentially the last comprehensive snapshot of the distribution of activity prior to the impact of the pandemic. A look at the medium and longer-term developments seems fairly off the point. In the short-term, Arizona and Maine experienced declines from January to February (the fall in Arizona was so modest that in the Bank's report it is chalked up as "unchanged"); Maine was the only state to experience a three-month drop. The coincident indexes depend heavily on labor market data, with some smoothing of current developments. One suspects that bad as the March figures are likely to be, they could well be revised down when the raw information for April gets factored in.