Economy in Brief

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index rose 2.8% last week (-19.9% y/y) after the prior week's 1.4% gain. Applications were at the highest level since early last month. Applications to [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline declined two cents last week to $3.45 (-2.8% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for seasonal volatility, Haver Analytics [...]

The Conference Board reported that their reading of consumer confidence improved 2.3% this month to 92.4 (13.0% y/y) from 90.3 in July, revised from 90.9. The latest figure beat expectations for 88.8 in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) gained 0.4% during June (5.1% y/y) after a 0.2% May increase, revised from 0.4%. The latest increase was the strongest in three months but it left the 5.1% [...]

The U.K. services sector index for growth prospects turned lower in Q3, falling after nearly 2 years of improving trends. The CBI index is turned lower in the third quarter for both consumer and business and professional categories. [...]

New orders for durable goods surged 22.6% last month (33.8% y/y) following a 2.7% June gain, revised from 0.7%. A 5.5% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The increase reflected a 318% jump (474% y/y) in [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that its August Composite index covering Texas factory sector activity declined to 7.1 from 12.7 in July. The latest figure was the lowest since March. The deterioration reflected lower new [...]

Germany's Ifo climate index for August has fallen to 5.3 from 8.6 in July. The all-sector climate index is still relatively firm standing in nearly the 72nd percentile of its historic queue of ordered values. However, this standing [...]