Economy in Brief

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo reported that its Composite Housing Market Index rose this month to 29 from a revised 28 in May, initially reported as 29. The latest figure was the highest since 2007. The index [...]

Growth slowdowns in EMU are choking off imports faster than exports are being slowed to outside the region. Over three months exports are weak on broad based weakness. But for imports the weakness stretches back over a year. [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-June slumped to 74.1 from 79.3 in May. The latest figure was the lowest since December and compared to expectations for 77.5. The reading of consumer expectations fell [...]

Foreign investors purchased $26.1 billion worth of U.S. long-term debt and equity securities in April, according the U.S. Treasury's International Capital ("TIC") data. This followed $21.9 billion worth in March, a similar amount in [...]

Overall industrial output fell across most categories last month. Total production slipped 0.1% after an unrevised 1.0% April increase. The decline compared to Consensus expectations for 0.1% uptick according to Action Economics. A [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for June retraced all of this year's improvement with a decline to 2.29 versus an unrevised 17.09 in May. Consensus expectations had been for improvement 14.0. Based on [...]

Japan's IP fell by 0.2% in April after surging by 1.3% in March. The industrial production growth rates have been progressively diminishing over more recent periods. Only transportation after slowing from an unsustainably strong pace [...]

The recent slow pace of labor market improvement has eased some more. That's the message from the rise in initial claims for unemployment insurance to 386,000 during the week of June 9 from 380,000 in the prior week, revised up from [...]