Economy in Brief

The EMU PMI from Markit this month shows a set back to the pace of improvement in the euro area. Manufacturing is doing a bit better, rising to a diffusion reading of 51.3 in October from 51.1 in September. That is an improvement, but [...]

Home prices continue moving higher, although the rate of gain slipped this summer. The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) rose 0.3% during August following a 0.8% July increase. The increase was [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total mortgage market index slipped 0.6% last week but plummeted 46.4% year-to-year. Home purchase mortgage applications ticked up 0.7% last week (-2.1% y/y) but remained 18.3% [...]

The chart that maps the survey responses on the outlook for French manufacturing industrial production and prices shows that IP expectations are moving upward rapidly while the prices expectations index, after some very moderate [...]

The value of construction put-in-place gained 0.6% in August (7.1 y/y) following an upwardly revised 1.4% July jump, double the rise reported initially. A 0.5% rise in building activity had been expected. Private sector construction [...]

Import prices matched expectations and increased 0.2% last month (-1.0% y/y), the same as during August. A 0.8% increase (-0.4% y/y) in petroleum prices was accompanied by no change (-1.0% y/y) in nonpetroleum costs. September's [...]

Canadian retail sales advanced by 0.2% in August. That rise was on the heels of a 0.5% rise in July. Still, the large drop in sales in June means that the sales performance over the last three months has been poor, logging a 0% growth [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose a penny last week to $3.36 (-8.9% y/y). Prices have been relatively stable for three weeks at their lowest level since the end of January, but that's down from the $3.78 per gallon peak [...]