Economy in Brief

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 234,000 (-9.7% y/y) during the week ended February 4 from an unrevised 246,000 claims in the prior week. It was the lowest level in twelve weeks. The four-week moving average of claims [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index rose 2.3% last week (-21.8% y/y) following a 3.2% decline during the week prior. Purchase applications rebounded 1.8% (5.5% y/y) after a 5.6% fall. [...]

The OECD overall gauge shows continued growth as the comprehensive index rises to a rounded up value of 100 in December from 99.9 in November and continues its one-tick per month advance that has been in play for the last three [...]

Regular gasoline prices slipped to $2.29 per gallon (+30.4% y/y) last week following a decline to $2.30 per gallon in the prior week. Prices peaked at $2.39 early last month, and remained down from a 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $14.2 billion during December following a little-revised $25.2 billion November gain. A $20.0 billion increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Full-year growth in [...]

German industrial output fell sharply and unexpectedly at the end of 2016 as output declined by 3% month-to-month in December. Both construction and manufacturing output fell by 3% or more in December. Widespread declines There were [...]

The total job openings rate of 3.6% during December was lower than 3.7% in November. Nevertheless, the rate for all of last year remained steady at 3.6%. These rates remained down from the record high of 3.9% in July. The private- [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services narrowed at year-end, but deepened slightly in all of last year. The December deficit fell to $44.3 billion from $45.7 billion during November, revised from $45.2 billion. A $45.0 billion [...]