Economy in Brief

Job market improvement continues to be evidenced in the weekly report on claims for unemployment insurance. Initial claims in the week ended April 4 nudged up to 281,000 (-9.4% y/y) from 267,000 during the prior week, revised from [...]

Recent German and EMU data have been on an upswing. This month's German orders report is a divergence from that. Its weak results are unexpected with orders falling for the second month in a row and lower on balance over a broad [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index inched 0.4% higher last week (30.7% y/y). Purchase applications jumped 6.8% (11.9% y/y), strong for the third straight week, while refinance [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $15.5 billion during February following a $10.8 billion increase in January, initially reported as $11.6 billion. Expectations were for a $13.8 billion increase, according to the Action Economics [...]

The job openings rate during February improved to 3.5%, leaving it closer to the series high of 3.8% and up from the recession low of 1.6%. The job openings rate is the number of job openings on the last business day of the month as a [...]

The chart on the left underscores the relationship between the services sector and consumer confidence. The two series have moved in a near lockstep phase over the last five years and seem to have become more closely linked over the [...]

Gasoline prices eased another 4 cents last week to $2.41 cents per gallon, down by one-third versus a year ago. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in pump prices. The seasonally adjusted price fell [...]

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity fell to 56.5 during March from an unrevised 56.9 in February. These numbers remained well below the highs of the second half of 2014. The [...]