Economy in Brief

New home sales recovered 3.3% in April to 343,000. This gain partially reversed March's 7.3% fall, revised from 7.1% reported originally, and put April up 9.9% from a year ago. The April volume exceeded the consensus expectations for [...]

Existing home sales gained 0.6% in April (+9.7% y/y) to a 4.970M annual rate, according to data compiled by the National Association of Realtors; March sales were revised upward and now show a marginal 0.2% decrease instead of 0.6% [...]

The pump price of regular gasoline fell another four cents last week to $3.71 per gallon. The last seven weeks of decline totals twenty three cents (-5.8%). Haver Analytics' seasonally-adjusted price for regular declined six cents to [...]

Sales of existing homes rose 3.4% last month to a 4.620 annual rate (10.0% y/y) from a revised 4.470M during March, last month reported as 4.480M. Sales of existing single-family homes alone increased 3.0% last month to 4.090M, up [...]

The effects of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan last year are still being felt. The disruptions in production led to a decline in exports and a rise in imports. Japan's typical trade surplus, was turned into a deficit [...]

The I.G. Metall union and employers agreed to a 4.3% pay rise, a compromise between the union's demand of a 6.5% raise and management's offer of a 2.6% raise. It was also the largest pay rise since the 5.4% negotiated, twenty years [...]

For 2013, the National Association for Business Economics expects real GDP growth of 2.7% versus 2.8% forecast in February. That follows expected 2.3% growth in this year, little changed from 2.4% forecasted earlier. Expectations for [...]

The April National Activity Index (CFNAI) from the Chicago Federal Reserve improved to 0.11 from a revised -0.44 in March, last month reported as -0.29. However, the three-month moving deteriorated to -0.06, the first negative reading [...]