Economy in Brief

Initial claims for unemployment insurance notched up to 339,000 (-2.6% y/y) during the week ended February 8 versus an unrevised 331,000 during the week prior. Expectations had been for 330,000 claims in the Action Economic forecast [...]

Retail spending declined 0.4% (+2.6% y/y) during January following a 0.1% December slip, revised down from +0.2%. The latest decline fell short of a 0.1% rise expected in the Action Economics survey. A 2.1% y/y decline (+4.1 y/y) in [...]

The German harmonized consumer prices edged up by just 0.1% in January after falling by 0.2% in December. Inflation in Germany continues to be subdued. However, over three months the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is up at [...]

The Federal Government ran a $10.4 billion budget deficit during January of FY 2014. The latest figure compares to the Action Economics Forecast Survey expectation of a $30.0 billion deficit. In the first four months of this fiscal [...]

The chart shows industrial production in the euro area has moved up sharply. It is beginning to challenge the growth rate of production in the United States -or at least it was. Despite this broad move higher by European output, in [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total mortgage market index declined 2.0% last week (-50.1% y/y). Applications to purchase a home fell 5.0% (-12.2% y/y) while applications to refinance a loan slipped 0.2% (-60.8% [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index improved to 94.1 during January from 93.9 in December. The latest figure remained down slightly from the May high of 94.4. For all of last [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that during all of last year its Housing Affordability Composite Index declined to 178.6, the lowest level since 2010. For December, the index slipped further to 168.1 from 170.90 during [...]