Economy in Brief

The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications fell 7.1% (63.6% y/y) last week but nevertheless remained near the highest level since early 2009. Applications to refinance fell 8.3% (89.6% y/y) while home [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes rose 5.9% last month and reversed the April decline. Sales have risen one-third versus the 2010 low. Nevertheless, the sales index level of [...]

New orders for durable goods rebounded 1.1% in May following a 0.2% dip in April (last month reported as unchanged). The Consensus forecast was for a 0.5% rise. Despite May's gain, the y/y increase continued to decelerate to 4.6% [...]

Indicators of Consumer Confidence for France and Germany were released today. In Germany, GfK's Consumer Climate indicator declined from the March high of 6.0 points to 5.7 points in May and June but is now forecasting an improvement [...]

The Conference Board's June Index of Consumer Confidence Index fell for the fifth month this year. It declined 3.7% to 62.0 from 64.4 last month, initially reported as 64.9. Nevertheless, the index remained up by more than half from [...]

Earlier pressure on home prices has given way to an improving trend. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index rose another 0.7% (-1.9% y/y) during April. That repeated its March rise, revised up from 0.1%. The [...]

Weak demand for petroleum products continued to depress prices last week.The pump price of regular gasoline declined nine cents to $3.44 per gallon. Since early April prices have fallen fifty cents (-12.8%). Haver Analytics' [...]

In spite of signs of weakness in the Brazilian economy in the last two years, Brazilian consumer confidence kept increasing up through April of this year. The main measure of Consumer Confidence, the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FVG) [...]