Economy in Brief

UK GDP registered a -0.2% reading for 2012 Q1 showing that the economy has not yet been able to escape the pull of recession. The industrial orders series shows that weakness remains in train, but with a forward-looking twist. While [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its index of total mortgage applications fell 3.8% w/w to 697.7 (+58.1% y/y). Applications to refinance led the decline with a 5.6% drop (+89.2% y/y) and reversed half of the prior week's [...]

New orders for durable goods fell 4.2% last month following a little-revised 1.9% February increase. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.6% decline. Lower orders for transportation equipment led last month's decline with a 12.5% [...]

The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell a nickel last week to $3.87. Nevertheless, the current level remained up sixty four cents (20%) since year-end. Haver Analytics' seasonally-adjusted price for regular fell eight [...]

French households have become more confident since the beginning of the year. (In France, the measure of confidence is derived by calculating a weighted average of the balances of opinion on the following underlying series: the [...]

The Conference Board's Index of Consumer Confidence during April slipped to 69.2 from 69.5 last month, initially reported as 70.2. Nevertheless, the latest two figures were the highest since February 2011 and were up nearly three- [...]

New home sales fell 7.1% to 328,000 last month. The decline reversed a revised 7.3% February increase, revised from -1.6%. Earlier months' figures also were revised higher. The latest sales beat Consensus expectations for 318,000 but [...]

Perspective on the Markit PMIsThe Markit PMI readings were not so surprising this month as the have been falling for some time There had been a three -month period in which the drop subsided, but that now is a thing of the past and [...]