Economy in Brief

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index notched 0.1% higher last week (17.9% y/y) and remained near the level of late-May. Purchase applications fell 3.5% (+20.1% y/y) while applications [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level increased 0.9% during June (5.4% y/y) following a 0.6% May gain, revised from 0.8%. The rise was paced by a 2.0% jump (15.0% y/y) in automotive products inventories and a 1.5% rise in furniture (7.8% [...]

Gasoline prices at the pump fell to an average $2.63 per gallon (-25.0% y/y) last week, the lowest level since late-April. This summer's high in prices was $2.84 per gallon reached in mid-June. Haver Analytics constructs factors [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index strengthened to 95.4 during July after falling to an unrevised decline to 94.1 in June. The reading was the lowest since September of last [...]

Nonfarm productivity increased 1.3% during Q2'15 (SAAR, 0.3% y/y), about as expected, following a 1.1% decline earlier this year, revised from -3.1%. Productivity fell a little-changed 2.2% in Q4'14. Last year's 0.7% rise was [...]

The ZEW current index continued its slow slog higher in August as expectations backtracked. Expectations are below their historic midpoint as they are higher fully 55.8% of the time, thus lower about 45% of the time. The current index [...]

The Labor Market Conditions Index from the Federal Reserve Board includes 19 indicators of labor market activity, covering the broad categories of unemployment and underemployment. These include jobs, workweeks, wages, vacancies, [...]

France's business survey by the Bank of France ticked higher in July; however, remaining off its recent peak. The index edged up to 97.96 from June's 97.88, still below May's 99.08 reading. The July reading is slightly above its [...]