Economy in Brief

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the fed funds rate was left unchanged in the range of 0.25%-0.50%, as expected. The meeting minutes continued to focus on price inflation. Overall inflation has remained below [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 1.2% last week (+17.4% y/y) following a 4.1% drop. Refinancing applications declined 1.6% (+23.3% y/y) following a 2.3% shortfall. Purchase [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated a 147,000 increase (1.9% y/y) in October nonfarm private sector payroll employment following a 202,000 September addition, revised from 154,000. So far this year, payrolls rose an [...]

With the Bank of Japan holding its fire in its recent meeting, Japan's economy continues to give off very muted signals. Annual growth rates for traditional indicators such as retail sales, industrial production, exports and [...]

Total sales of light vehicles during October increased 3.0% (0.6% y/y) to 18.29 million units (SAAR) according to Autodata, and added to September's 4.5% gain. The latest level was the strongest since July 2005. Pacing the increase [...]

The value of construction put-in-place fell 0.4% (-0.2% y/y) during September following a 0.5% August dip, revised from -0.7%. The value of construction spending has been moving sideways since the middle of last year, following strong [...]

Factory sector activity continued to improve during October. The ISM composite index of factory sector activity rose to 51.9 from an unrevised 51.5 in September. It was the seventh month this year when the index was above break-even. [...]

Asia area PMIs mostly improved in October as Indonesia and Vietnam were exceptions. The U.K., a Western nation with a finalized PMI, showed a drop off in October. The US (ISM) manufacturing PMI also was announced for October and it [...]