Economy in Brief: 2020

In the euro area inflation remains well under the ECB’s just-less-than-2% objective. Globally inflation has been tame as the economic outlook has been pulled back. Oil prices have pulled back as well as the OPEC is resorting to some [...]

Factory orders decreased 0.5% (-0.8% y/y) during January following a 1.9% December jump. This was the second monthly decline in the last three months. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a 0.1% slip. Durable goods orders [...]

Productivity in the nonfarm business sector during Q4'19 increased 1.2% (SAAR), close to expectations, after a little-changed 0.3% Q3 decline. The Q4 gain was revised from 1.4%. Earlier figures also were revised. The latest increase [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 3,000 to 216,000 (-0.9% y/y) in the week ended February 29 from an unrevised 219,000 in the prior week. The February 29 result was slightly lower than the Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Application Index rose 1.5% (70.2% y/y) during the week ending February 21... Applications for fixed-rate loans rose roughly three-quarters y/y while applications for [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) increased to 57.3 during February from 55.5 in January. It was the highest level since February 2019. A reading of 55.0 had been [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Application Index rose 15.1% during the week ending February 28; this was just over double the year-ago amount, that is, up 100.9%; the previous week had seen a 1.5% [...]

• The labor market remains firm. • Employment at large companies strengthened last month. The ADP National Employment Report indicated that private nonfarm payrolls improved 183,000 (1.5% y/y) during February following a 209,000 [...]