Economy in Brief: 2019

New home sales fell 6.9% to 607,000 during January following a December increase to 652,000, revised from 621,000. It was the lowest level of sales in three months. January sales of 623,000 had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 6,000 in the week ended March 9 to 229,000 from 223,000 the week before, which was unrevised. The Action Economics Forecast Survey projected 225,000 claims for this week. The four-week [...]

The Labor Department reported that import prices rose 0.6% during February (-1.3 y/y) after improving 0.1% in January, revised from a 0.5% decline. A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These figures [...]

New orders for durable goods increased 1.2% (3.5% year-on-year) during December ....... The durable goods figures are available in Haver's USECON database. The Action Economics consensus forecast figure is in the AS1REPNA database. [...]

The survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The base period and value for all indexes is [...]

The EMU rebound in IP is touted as stronger than expected with a 1.4% rise in January, compared to an expected 1% increase. Fair enough. But as surprises go, this one does not take you anywhere since the trend lower is still well [...]

The value of construction put-in-place increased 1.3% (0.3% y/y) during January following a 0.8% December decline, revised from -0.6%. November's figures were revised sharply downward. January's increase was the largest in nine [...]

The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index improved 0.1% during February (1.9% y/y) following three months of slight decline. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a 0.2% increase. Producer prices excluding food & energy [...]