Economy in Brief

The Conference Board's September Index of Consumer Confidence showed stability following the harrowing August decline. The index actually ticked up slightly m/m to 45.4 following the nearly one-quarter August downdraft, which was [...]

The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index remained unchanged during July for the third straight month, June was revised up from a 0.1% slip reported earlier. Despite their recent stability, prices during the last [...]

Slacked demand and lower crude oil prices helped lower retail gasoline prices last week to their least since late-February. The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell another nine cents to $3.51. Prices were down forty-five [...]

Given the seriousness of the financial situation and talk of recession in the Euro Area, it is not surprising that German business confidence weakened again in September. The IFO Institute measures confidence in industry and trade [...]

The sales market for new homes remained weak last month, and that greatly depressed home pricing power. Total new home sales decreased 2.3% to 295,000 after a downwardly revised 0.3% July slip. The latest was the fourth consecutive [...]

Economic momentum, one way or the other, is something the U.S. economy can't muster. The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI) was a negative 0.43 in August. That followed a marginally positive July number which was revised up [...]

Foreign and domestic orders among EMU members continue to trend upward by at an ever slower pace. That is the view from the yr/yr growth rates. Sic month growth rates (memorialized in the two-columns table shows a sharp slowing in [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Leading Economic Indicators index rose 0.3% during August following July's revised 0.6% increase, initially set at 0.5%. The gain beat the Consensus forecast for a 0.1% rise. Despite the [...]