Economy in Brief: 2014

Harsh winter weather didn't discourage home buyers last month. New home sales improved 9.6% to 468,000 (2.2% y/y), the highest level since July 2008. December sales were revised to 427,000 from 414,000. The latest figure beat [...]

The estimate of German consumer confidence in March has moved higher, according to the research group GfK. At a level of 8.5 Germany's consumer climate was last higher in January 2007; it was above its current level for a period of [...]

A softer housing market has lessened the workload of mortgage bankers. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total mortgage market index declined 8.5% last week (-53.7% y/y), the third consecutive week of sharp decline. [...]

Natural gas prices moved lower last week to $5.98 per mmbtu but remained up sharply from prices twelve months ago. Yesterday, prices increased to $6.28 per mmbtu. The demand for all petroleum products increased 3.0% y/y last week. [...]

German GDP: German GDP was affirmed at a 1.5% annual rate gain in the fourth quarter. However Germany continues to have the same issues for which it has been criticized over the past year. One of the stronger components of German [...]

Consumer confidence, as measured by the Conference Board, fell to an index reading of 78.1 this month (+14.9% y/y) from January's 79.4, revised down from 80.7. The latest figure fell short of the Action Economics Consensus Forecast [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) improved by 0.8% during December and lifted prices during all of last year by 7.7%. That was the strongest rise since 2005. During the last twelve months [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased to $3.44 (-9.0% y/y) last week, the third consecutive week of increase from the $3.29 low. Nevertheless, prices remained below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last [...]