Economy in Brief

Initial unemployment insurance claims rebounded to 272,000 during the week ended February 20 following an unrevised decline during the prior week. The four-week moving average eased to 272,000, and remained near a two-month low. [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.4% during December following a 0.6% November gain, revised from 0.5%. For all of 2015, prices increased a steady 5.7%. During the last three months, [...]

Factory sector activity is gaining strength. New orders for durable goods recovered 4.9% during January (1.8% y/y) following a 4.6% December decline, revised from -5.1%. A 2.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

Sales of new single-family homes declined 9.2% during January (-5.2% y/y) to 494,000 (SAAR) and reversed December's 8.2% increase to an unrevised 544,000. December sales were biased by new closing procedures which shifted sales out of [...]

The INSEE household confidence indicator for France fell to 95 in February from 97 in January. The index was last lower six months ago. The index had recouped a lot of its losses by May 2015. The current set back takes it to the [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 4.3% last week (+23.8% y/y) following two weeks of strong increase. So far this month, applications have risen 24.9% from January. Purchase [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index during February declined 5.7% to 92.2 (-6.7% y/y) from 97.8 in January, revised from 98.1. It was the lowest level of confidence since July. The figure disappointed Consensus forecasts [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales nudged 0.4% higher (7.5% y/y) during January to 5.470 million (SAAR). The rise followed a revised 12.1% December jump. Sales were stronger than the 5.36 million [...]