Economy in Brief

Sales of existing homes increased 5.1% (1.5% y/y) to 5.330 million (SAAR) during March from 5.070 million in February, revised from 5.080 million. The gain followed February's 7.3% decline and extended a pattern of volatile sideways [...]

As we look at the weakest year-on-year German PPI drop since January 2010 -over six years ago- we are now deeper into a recovery and price conditions are worsening. There is some sort of lesson there. I am reminded of Gilda Radner's [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 1.3% last week (14.9% y/y) to the firmest level since early-February. Refinancing applications increased 2.6% (13.4% y/y). Purchase [...]

Regular gasoline prices increased to $2.14 per gallon last week (-14.0% y/y) versus $2.07 in the prior week, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The price compares to a low of $1.72 in February, but remained down from a 2014 [...]

Housing starts fell 8.8% (+14.2% y/y) during March to 1.089 million units (AR) from 1.194 million in February, revised from 1.178 million. It was the lowest level of starts since October. Expectations were for 1.89 million starts in [...]

The ZEW current index continues its slow erosion, but expectations rose to 11.2 in April from 4.3 in March. At 11.2, expectations are at the border of the bottom one-third of their historic queue of values. The slipping current index, [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo held at 58 for the third straight month. It remained down from the October high of 65. The NAHB figures are seasonally adjusted. During the [...]

Inflation reports continue to be weak globally. Markets don't really focus on the PPI reports as much especially because they tend to be so dominated by commodities prices which have been so weak. But monetary authorities are looking [...]