Economy in Brief

Consumer prices rose during February by the most since last April. The CPI matched expectations and increased 0.4% following a 0.2% January rise. The quicker rate of increase was due to a 3.2% gain in energy prices. Food prices ticked [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's General Business Conditions Index rose in March to its highest level since last April. The index rose to 12.5 from 10.2 in February and the figures have been positive for six consecutive months. [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for March rose to 20.21 from February's unrevised 19.53. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that the index remained at its highest level since June 2010. [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell sharply during the week ended March 10 to 351,000 from 365,000 during the previous period, initially estimated at 362,000. Claims averaged 355,750 (-8.4% y/y) during the last four weeks. [...]

The producer price index for finished goods rose 0.4% during February, the strongest increase since last September. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.5% rise, according to the Action Economics survey. Core pricing power eased. [...]

The U.S. current account deficit rose last quarter to $124.1B from $107.6B in Q3 as a modest gain in imports outpaced a slight export decline. Consensus expectations were for $114.2B in Q4. The ratio to GDP last quarter was 3.2%, [...]

The EMU area showed just the slightest of increases in IP in January as the index gained 0.1%. Still it was enough of a gain to blunt the ongoing drop in IP and turn the three-month growth rate at -3.8% higher than the 6-month growth [...]

The index of total mortgage applications fell 2.4% last week to 736.5 (+44.2% y/y), down for the fifth consecutive week. Applications to refinance fell 4.1% (+65.0% y/y), down for the fourth straight week. Conversely, applications to [...]