Economy in Brief

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index fell 0.2% in July after June's 0.6% increase; the latter was unrevised from the initial report. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had foreseen a 0.2% rise. July's reversal put the [...]

Sales of existing homes strengthened 2.0% during July to an annualized 5.590 million (11.7% y/y) from 5.480 in June, revised from 5.490 million. Sales remained at the highest level since February 2007 and were stronger than consensus [...]

The German PPI has reversed its course to higher rates of expansion to go dead flat in July. Manufacturing producer prices are flat. Ex-energy the manufacturing PPI is up by 0.1%. Indeed, over three months, the PPI is falling and [...]

The job market continues to expand. First time claims for unemployment insurance rose to 277,000 (-7.9% y/y) during the week ended August 15 from 273,000 in the week earlier, initially reported as 274,000. The four-week moving average [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 3.6% last week (20.4% y/y) to the highest level in three months. Applications to refinance increased 7.2% (21.2% y/y) as interest rates [...]

Earlier strength in consumer price inflation eased last month. The consumer price index increased 0.1% during July (0.2% y/y) following unrevised increases of 0.3% and 0.4% during the prior two months. Prices excluding food & energy [...]

The chart shows that after a period of deficit narrowing, there is a re-imposition of a trend to having trade deficits widen over the last five months. However, a look in the table and at moving averages shows that deficits are lower [...]

Gasoline prices at the pump rose to an average $2.72 per gallon (-21.8% y/y) last week, the first increase since early last month. Prices nevertheless remained near the lowest level since early-May. Haver Analytics constructs factors [...]