Economy in Brief

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.8% in December, after November's 0.7% gain, which was revised slightly from 0.8% reported initially. These two months put December up 8.4% at an [...]

New orders for durable goods improved 2.8% (5.4% y/y) following sharp declines in four of the previous five months. Orders for commercial aircraft more-than-doubled m/m (-3.1% y/y) but motor vehicle & parts bookings fell 2.9% (+8.9% [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims increased to 313,000 during the week ended February 21 from 282,000 in the prior week, revised from 283,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims notched up to 294,500, the highest level [...]

GfK projects a new high reading for Germany's consumer climate for March. Climate is expected to improve to 9.7 in March from 9.3 in February. The lagging components for economic and income expectations as well as for buying climate [...]

The consumer price index fell 0.7% during January following a revised 0.3% decline during December, earlier reported as -0.4%. It was the largest monthly drop since December 2008 and the 12-month change of -0.1% was the greatest [...]

New home sales during January were little-changed at 481,000 (5.3% y/y) following 482,000 sales during December, initially reported as 481,000. The latest figure remained nearly the highest since June 2008 and surpassed expectations [...]

French household confidence moved higher to 92 in February from 90 in January, a nice two-point rise. At 92, French confidence was last at that level in May 2012 and last higher (for one brief reading) in November 2010. Confidence was [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 3.5% last week (+20.6% y/y). It was the the fourth decline in the last five weeks, totaling 25.2%. Refinance applications fell 7.5% [...]