Economy in Brief: March 2020

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Application Index rose 1.5% (70.2% y/y) during the week ending February 21... Applications for fixed-rate loans rose roughly three-quarters y/y while applications for [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) increased to 57.3 during February from 55.5 in January. It was the highest level since February 2019. A reading of 55.0 had been [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Application Index rose 15.1% during the week ending February 28; this was just over double the year-ago amount, that is, up 100.9%; the previous week had seen a 1.5% [...]

• The labor market remains firm. • Employment at large companies strengthened last month. The ADP National Employment Report indicated that private nonfarm payrolls improved 183,000 (1.5% y/y) during February following a 209,000 [...]

The Autodata Corporation reported that sales of light vehicles during February eased 0.2% (+2.0% y/y) to 17.04 million (SAAR) from 17.07 million in January, revised from 17.05 million. During the last three months, sales averaged [...]

EMU inflation was dead flat at zero in February; the year-on-year rate ticked down to 1.3% from 1.4%. The German economy saw its year-on-year rate rise in February compared to January. But in France, Italy, Spain and in all of the [...]

The Federal Reserve lowered the target for the Fed Funds rate by 50 basis points to a range of 1.00% to 1.25%. In the Fed's press release, it indicated that "the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity." "The Committee [...]

Retail gasoline prices fell to $2.42 per gallon (0.0% y/y) in the week ended March 1 versus $2.47 per gallon in the previous week. Prices remained below an early-May peak of $2.90 per gallon. Haver Analytics adjusts prices for [...]