Economy in Brief

It was a rough winter for the housing sector. The latest indication is the only moderate 7.2% m/m rebound in seasonally-adjusted housing starts last month following a 18.5% February plunge. The rise brought the level to 549,000 (AR) [...]

Spring has done nothing to lift activity in the housing market. The National Association of Home Builders reported that its April index of housing market activity slipped back to 16 from an unrevised 17 in March. Though the latest [...]

So long as the ECB insists on looking at headline inflation, the picture in the chart above is going to continue to haunt it in its sleep. While headline inflation is ‘raging’ that has almost nothing to do with monetary policy. [...]

Foreign investors made net purchases of $32.4 billion worth of U.S. long-term debt and equity securities in February, according the U.S. Treasury's International Capital ("TIC") data published today. This is noticeably less than [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions rose to 21.70, its highest level since April of last year. The figure beat Consensus expectations for a stable reading of [...]

U.S. industrial production jumped 0.9% in March following a revised no-change in February, initially reported as -0.1%. The latest increase roughly matched Consensus expectations for a 0.8% gain according to Action Economics. Improved [...]

Higher energy prices raised March inflation as they did in February. The Commerce Department indicated that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.5% in March following a like gain in February. The increase matched Consensus expectations. [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that overall mortgage applications fell 6.7% last week to the lowest level since mid-February. Applications to refinance fell 7.7% w/w and were off roughly one-half from the peak last August. [...]