Economy in Brief

As we wonder how much strength is built in the European Monetary Union, France is showing some rebound in PPI prices in November. However, price trends in France do not give us a clear picture of activity trends. Such associations are [...]

Korean consumer confidence continues to show progress. While the overall index flattened at 107 this month, it held the jump to 107 that it made in November from 106 in October. The rate of growth in overall sentiment at 3.9% (SAAR) [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 338,000 last week following 380,000 in the week ended December 14, revised from 379,000. With the Thanksgiving-Christmas seasonality quirks, longer-term comparisons are perhaps more [...]

Strength in the factory sector is gaining momentum. Orders for durable goods jumped 3.5% (10.9% y/y) last month following a 0.7% October slip, revised from the initial report of a 2.0% decline. A 21.8% surge (63.9% y/y) in orders for [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline prices recovered to $3.27 (0.4% y/y) last week but remained down versus the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Much of the decline versus last year reflects less driving this [...]

New home sales during November slipped 2.1% to 464,000 (+16.6% y/y) although sales during the prior two months were revised sharply higher. The latest figure beat expectations for 450,000 sales in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

After a long hard run to higher confidence readings peaking at 100.7 in September 2013, Italy's consumer confidence has been eroding again. Confidence in Italy was last lower in February 2013, but in that month it was also much lower. [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) jumped to 0.60 last month from -0.07 during October. The latest level was the highest reached since November of 2012. As a result of the monthly gain, the [...]