Economy in Brief

Extreme fluctuations set the stage In the US the out-sized and near record monthly drop in the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's MFG index gave economists, investors and other interested parties reason for slack-jawed pause. Coming [...]

Total new home sales decreased 0.7% in July, a third successive reduction. June's sales were revised from 312,000 to 300,000, and May's from 315,000 to 309,000. The July volume was a bit weaker than forecast; the Action Economics [...]

The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI) remained negative in July, but it still improved noticeably from June's reading. The last couple of months were revised positively as well. These latest data relieved some of the [...]

Japan’s indices are showing a rebound in its three main sectors: Manufacturing, Services (tertiary sector) and Construction. The rebound is being led by a strong recovery after a deep drop in manufacturing and mining. Services [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes during July fell 3.5% to 4.670M (21.0% y/y) from a revised 4.840 in June. The y/y comparison is positive because of last year's decline after the ending of the [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Leading Economic Indicators index rose 0.5% in July following June's unrevised 0.3% increase. A Consensus forecast looked for a 0.2% rise. The latest three-month growth rate (annualized) picked [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's index of regional factory sector plunged this month. Today's Philadelphia Fed General Activity index dropped to -30.7 from an unrevised 3.2 in July. The figure was well short of Consensus [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims have been waffling between 375,000 and 432,000 since February. Last week, they ticked up w/w to 408,000 from an upwardly revised 399,000 during the prior period. The figure surpassed expectations [...]