Economy in Brief

Sales of new single-family homes strengthened 10.8% during December to 544,000 from 491,000 in November, revised from 490,000. The increase was helped by new closing procedures which shifted sales out of November. The gain left sales [...]

Germany's GfK consumer confidence index, a forward-looking measure, predicts a flattening of confidence for Germany in February. The GfK measure has slowed markedly in recent months but has continued to make some hard-fought gains. As [...]

Gasoline prices have weakened to the lowest level since January 2009. The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline declined last week to an average $1.86 (-9.2% y/y), down from $1.91 in the prior week, according to the U.S. [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity at the company level fell to 15.9 in January. It was the third month of decline, sliding to the lowest level since August. [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index during January rose 1.9% to 98.1 following a 4.0% rise in December to 96.3, revised from 96.5. Consensus expectations had been for a reading of 96.1, according to the Action Economics [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.5% in November (5.9% y/y), the same as during October. Over the last three months, the annualized rate of change picked up to 7.5%, the quickest [...]

The U.K. CBI survey for January shows a sizeable drop in industrial orders for U.K. industrial firms. The index, a diffusion reading in this survey, fell to -15 in January from -7 in December. It is the weakest reading since October [...]

Gasoline prices have weakened to the lowest level since January 2009. The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline declined last week to an average $1.86 (-9.2% y/y), down from $1.91 in the prior week, according to the U.S. [...]