Economy in Brief

New home sales during December increased 11.6% to 481,000 (AR) from 431,000 in November, initially reported as 438,000. The latest figure was the highest since June 2008 and pulled the average sales volume for last year to 437,000, [...]

New orders for durable goods declined 3.4% during December (+0.3% y/y) following a 2.1% November drop, revised from -0.7% reported initially. The latest decline was the fourth in the last five months. A 55.5% collapse (-64.5% y/y) in [...]

U.K. GDP slowed in Q4 2014, rising by 0.5% after having gained 0.7% in the previous quarter. The U.K. office for National Statistics reports gains of 0.8% in services and of 1.3% in agriculture, against a slippage of 1.8% in [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that its January Composite index of factory sector activity of -4.4 was negative for the first time since May 2013. The figure reflected weakness amongst all of the component series, most [...]

The chart shows the steady march of the German Ifo indices even in the context of the business cycle and its aftermath. There was a large Ifo index drop in recession followed by recovery. There was a second down draft, much milder [...]

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators from the Conference Board increased 0.5% last month (6.4% y/y) following a 0.4% November rise, revised from 0.6%. Eighty five percent of the component series improved m/m. A steeper interest [...]

Existing single-family home sales fell 3.1% during all of 2014 to 4.916 million, following three years of positive growth. For December alone, however, sales improved 2.4% month-to-month (3.5% y/y) to 5.040 million (AR) from 4.920, [...]

While the EMU flash-gauges rose in January from their December values, Germany saw manufacturing deteriorate while France saw deterioration month-to-month overall and in services. Despite the month's for EMU pickup- for the euro area [...]