Economy in Brief

Economic momentum built last quarter. The 1.7% (1.4% y/y) advance in real GDP during Q2'13 was its strongest of the last three quarters. It also outpaced consensus expectations for a 1.0% rise. However, the advance was accompanied by [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell to $3.65 last week (3.9% y/y) and reversed most of the prior week's gain. Nevertheless, prices remained near the highest price since March. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to [...]

Consumer confidence remains on an uptrend. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose to 81.4 this month following a downwardly revised May reading of 74.3. Consensus expectations had been for 75.2. During the last ten [...]

The EU index in July rose to 95 from 92.6, a relatively large jump the ranks 20th out of about the last 250 observations; that places it in the top 11% of all monthly changes over that period. Consumer confidence made a particular [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 80.3 this month from an upwardly revised 82.1 in June, weighted down by the over-35 crowd. Consensus expectations had been for 81.0. During the last ten years, there has been [...]

Home price improvement remains the strongest since 2006. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20 City Home Price Index rose 1.0% (12.1% y/y) during May following its unrevised 1.7% April advance. The 3-month annualized rate of [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that its General Business Activity Index fell to 4.4 this month from 6.5 during June. The series, nevertheless, remained improved from its spring lows. Monthly deterioration in the index [...]

Italian business and consumer confidence improved in July. Both series- with special emphasis on the consumer series- increased sharply in June and have followed that up with another gain in July. That improvement continues in July [...]