Economy in Brief

Pending sales of single-family homes slumped 4.3% (+6.9% y/y) last month after a little-revised 1.6% November rise, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). For all of 2012, sales rose 11.2% y/y. The rebound in the [...]

A doubling of defense bookings raised total durable goods orders by 4.6% (0.2% y/y) during December, a 0.7% rise had been expected. Outside of the defense sector, orders rose 1.2% (-4.5% y/y) last month but the 4.1% full-year gain was [...]

Blue Chip Economic Indicators polls top business economists and collects their forecasts for critical indicators of future business activity. Since 1976, the monthly survey has been derived by averaging panel members' forecasts for [...]

For all of last year, new home sales rose 19.2% from 2011 to 366,000 units. However, during December sales of new homes fell to 369,000 (AR) from 398,000 during November, revised from 377,000. Consensus expectations had been for sales [...]

The EMU MFG and Services PMIs are continuing to move higher. BOTH sets of indices point to ongoing declines in output for MFG and for services, respectively. But the pace of the contraction is slowing. It's the highest MFG and [...]

During all of last year, the Leading Economic Indicator index from the Conference Board grew 2.0%, down from 5.1% and 8.0% increases during the prior two years. Last month, the leaders rose 0.5% following a revised no change in [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 330,000 (-11.3% y/y) during the week ended January 19 versus an unrevised 335,000 a week earlier. Consensus expectations were for 355,000 claims. The four week moving average of claims [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications rose 7.0% (15.4% y/y) last week yet still were below the late-September peak. Applications to refinance an existing loan rose another 7.7% (15.3% y/y), adding to [...]