Economy in Brief

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 10.3% last week (-42.3% y/y) following two weeks of decline. Nevertheless, applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September [...]

Wholesale sales increased 1.3% (7.8% y/y) during April following March's 1.6% gain, last month set at 1.4%. Durable goods sales gained 1.7% (6.0% y/y) led by a 3.1% jump (6.3% y/y) in furniture sales. Motor vehicle & parts sales [...]

Further indication of labor market improvement came today. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate increased to 3.1% during April from a revised 2.9% in [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline slipped to $3.67 last week (0.5% y/y) versus $3.69 to begin the month of June. The price has been near the current level since April and remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached [...]

France saw its industrial production (IP) gain strongly in April, but it still did not fully shake off the drop in March. Italian IP is in the same boat in April as its 0.4% gain is less than its 0.5% drop in March. However, Italy has [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index gained to 96.6 during May after improvement to 95.2 in April. The latest level was its highest since September 2007, just before the [...]

Housing starts in Canada rebounded by a huge 24.7% in April after falling by 18.2% in March. Volatility around this time of year is normal for Canada. Sometimes it comes in Jan/Feb; this year it came a month later. Momentum in starts [...]

The National Association for Business Economics has released new forecasts for U.S. real economic activity. Expectations for 3.1% real GDP growth in 2015 following a 2.5% advance this year are unchanged. Quarterly growth is expected [...]