Economy in Brief

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed indicated that the economy, consumer spending, business investment and job creation each had improved. Two caveats, however, regarding growth were offered: the housing [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 9.2% last week (-45.8% y/y) and reversed the prior week's gain. Applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September 2012. [...]

The construction sector in the European Monetary Union backtracked in May. The index which already signaled contraction slipped to a weaker 43.3 in May from 44.4 in April. Diffusion indices signal expansion when their values exceed 50 [...]

The U.S. current account deficit expanded sharply last quarter to $111.2 billion from $87.3 billion in Q4. It was the largest quarterly deficit since Q3 2012 and represented 2.6% of GDP. The Action Economics Forecast Survey called for [...]

The per barrel cost of WTI crude oil increased last week to $105.59 (9.6% y/y), the highest level since last September. The seasonally adjusted price of $105.19 per barrel, generated by Haver Analytics, remained up sharply from $92.19 [...]

Housing starts during May declined 6.5% to 1.001 million (+8.0% y/y from 1.071 million in April, revised from 1.072 million. The latest figure fell short of expectations for 1.028 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Germany's ZEW current conditions reading rose to 67.7 in June from 62.1 in May. The June current conditions reading is higher only about 9.4% of the time. On the other hand, the expectations reading fell significantly to 29.8 from [...]

Consumer prices increased 0.4% (2.1% y/y) in May, the largest increase since February 2013. The reading easily beat consensus expectations for a 0.2% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Consumer prices excluding food and [...]