Economy in Brief

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that September pending sales of single-family homes fell 5.6% m/m, down for the fourth straight month. Sales in September were at the lowest level since December. Sales declined [...]

Sweden's seasonally adjusted Kroner-based trade data show a sharply larger surplus in August followed by a near normal surplus in September. Sweden's exports and imports both fell again in September. The trade data, though seasonally [...]

Industrial production rose 0.6% during September (3.1% y/y) following an unrevised 0.4% August increase. A 0.3% gain had been expected in the Action Economics survey. A strong 4.4% rise (4.4% y/y) in utility output paced last month's [...]

The German Ifo index has slowed over the past three months. We present the diffusion indices for the sectors and the overall measures in the table, but the Ifo also presents these measures as indices. The business climate index has, [...]

Consumer sentiment, as measured in the Reuters/University of Michigan survey, continues to move lower. It fell sharply during October to a reading of 73.2 (-11.4% y/y). That compares to 75.2 at mid-month and 77.5 during September. [...]

New orders for durable goods strengthened by 3.7% last month (7.4% y/y) following a little-revised 0.2% August uptick. The latest figure was double expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Orders for nondefense aircraft & [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its August Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate rose to 2.8%, up from July but about where it's been all year. The job openings rate is the number of job [...]

The status of the job market remains unclear. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 350,000 (-5.9% y/y) during the week ended October 19 from 362,000 during the prior week, initially reported as 358,000. In coming weeks, [...]