Economy in Brief

The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline moved up 2 cents last week to $3.32 per gallon after three straight weeks at $3.30. Nevertheless, since their September peak, prices remain down 56 cents per gallon. The norm for this [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) rose a firm 0.6% during November following a like increase in October. The 5.6% y/y increase was its strongest since 2006 following four successive years of [...]

The Zew index jumped in January in keeping with improved perceptions of conditions in the euro-Zone. German elections are still in train and a recent local loss of support for Merkel in Lower Saxony to the center-left may make her [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 1.0% (+12.8% y/y) during December to a 4.940M annual rate. The gain followed a downwardly revised 4.8% November rise to 4.990M, initially reported as [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) for December fell to 0.02 from a revised 0.27 in November, last month reported as 0.10. The three-month moving average ticked slightly higher to -0.11. [...]

Throughout the United States, the unemployment rate has fallen to some degree from the recession high. While not down much in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, rates are nonetheless down sharply elsewhere. The problem in the labor [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-January deteriorated to 71.3 (-4.9% y/y) from an already depressed and unrevised 72.9 in December. The latest figure fell short of Consensus expectations for improvement [...]

European manufacturing continues to weaken. The 12 month percentage change in orders is substantially lower for all the countries listed in the table than it was at this time one year ago. . When we compare the year-over-year [...]