Economy in Brief

Month-to-month the German Ifo gauge of industry has snapped back with its headline metric rising to 8.5 in May from 6.4 in April. The business situation index has advanced to 17.1 from 15.3. Expectations reversed course to rise to 0.2 [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 2.3% last week (24.2% y/y) following a 1.0 decline during the week prior. Purchase applications jumped 4.8% (16.6% y/y) and made up the [...]

The U.S. House Price Index, from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), increased 0.7% (6.1% y/y) during March following a 0.5% gain during February, revised from 0.4%. It was the quickest rise in six months and improved the y/y [...]

Regular gasoline prices increased to $2.30 per gallon last week (-17.1% y/y) following two weeks of little change, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Prices were at the highest level since the first week of October. The price [...]

Unexpected step back for ZEW forward-looking metric The German ZEW index in May saw its expectations indicator fall sharply while the current index moved higher. The current reading is quite strong as it is stronger only 18% of the [...]

The housing market improved significantly as the spring selling season unfolded. Sales of new single-family homes during April jumped 16.6% to 619,000 (AR) from 531,000 in March, revised from 511,000. Sales in February and January [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity at the company level was fairly steady in May, for a second month, at 18.2 versus 17.8 in April. The measure has been declining, [...]

The overall U.S. unemployment rate has averaged 5.0% since Q4 of last year, half its late-2009 peak. For all of 2015, the 5.3% jobless rate was down roughly two percentage points from 2014. Despite the overall decline great variation [...]