Economy in Brief

Industrial orders trends for the Eurozone continue to come in country by country. Of the five early reporting countries in EMU, industrial orders are down in July for three of them, namely Germany Portugal and Finland. In July orders [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the total mortgage market index rebounded 11.2% (-49.7% y/y) last week after a 13.5% decline during the prior week. Applications to refinance an existing loan jumped 17.9% but remained [...]

Housing starts during August posted a 0.9% gain to 891,000 (19.0% y/y) and added to the 5.7% July increase to 883,000, revised down from 896,000 reported initially. The latest level fell short of expectations for 916,000 starts in the [...]

Consumers have developed cautious spending habits of late. The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales fell 1.6% last week (+3.2% y/y). So far this month sales have slipped 0.5% from [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell 4 cents last week to $3.55 (-8.5% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to account for seasonal [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo held at 58 this month after a 2 point advance in August. The latest level remained the highest since November 2005 but disappointed [...]

The ZEW index for Germany showed a very sharp increase in its current conditions index, rising to 30.6 in September from 18.3 in August. The expectations index moved up sharply too, it has reached 49.6 from a level of 42.0 in August. [...]

Consumer prices posted a minimal increase last month. The August consumer price index rise of just 0.1% (1.5% y/y) followed an unrevised 0.2% gain during July. A 0.2% increase had been expected according to the Action Economics [...]