Economy in Brief

With the rebound in sales in April, trends in German retail sales show signs of stabilizing. Both six-month and year-over-year trends are starting to snake sideways at firm rates of growth. The three-month pace is still erratic. Real [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes increased 3.4% during April following a little-revised 1.2% gain during March. The latest level was the highest level since December 2006. [...]

The job market remains on a firm footing. Initial unemployment insurance claims increased to 282,000 during the week ended May 23 from 275,000 in the prior week, initially reported as 274,000. Despite the increase, the four week [...]

Both the EU and EMU measures of overall sentiment came up flat in May. As the chart shows, momentum in sentiment, after swinging strongly higher at end-2014, has since gone flat. For EMU sectors overall, the industrial sector reading [...]

The overall U.S. unemployment rate in April of 5.4% stood at its lowest point since August 2008, remaining down from the late-2009 peak of 10.0%. The same declining trend is certainly evident amongst the states, but great variation [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 1.6% last week (+10.9% y/y), down for the fifth straight week. Refinance applications fell 3.9% (+8.4% y/y) to the lowest level since early [...]

Gasoline prices rose to an average $2.77 per gallon at the pump (-24.5% y/y) last week from 2.74 in the prior week. It was the highest level of prices since early-December and prices were roughly one-third higher versus the low of [...]

German consumer climate will advance to 10.2 in in June after logging 10.1 in May. The estimate of climate continues to snake higher in Germany even though its pace has been damped in recent months. The climate reading is at the top [...]