Economy in Brief: 2020

To some, this chart may looks a lot like things are back to normal... but they are not The table below that presents growth rates on several established fixed timelines reveals some of wildness and complexity in evaluating car [...]

• Home purchase applications rise following two weeks of decline. • Refinancing applications weaken. The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Loan Applications Index eased 0.3% (+68.6% y/y) in the week ended November 13, about as it [...]

• Single-family home building increases to highest level since April 2007. • Building permits hold steady. Housing starts rose 4.9% (14.2% y/y) in October to 1.530 million (SAAR) from 1.459 million in September, revised from 1.415 [...]

• Crude oil prices increase. • Natural gas prices edge lower. • Gasoline prices are little changed. The price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil increased to an average of $40.79 per barrel (-28.4% y/y) in the week [...]

Housing starts in Canada rose in October after a sharp drop in September when multi-unit activity backed off sharply. The increase in starts is attributed to single-detached urban starts which dominated some slight weakness in urban [...]

• Business inventory accumulation strengthens. • Sales growth also remains firm. • Inventory-to-sales ratio remains at six-year low. Total business inventories rose 0.7% (-4.7% y/y) during September following an unrevised 0.3% August [...]

• Oil prices fall again, but some other imports also decrease. • Export prices were mixed with total up 0.2%. Import prices edged down 0.1% in October (-1.0% y/y) after rising 0.2% in September, which is revised from 0.3% reported [...]

• Consumers barely lift spending following five months of strong increases. • Spending slowdown widens. As the number of coronavirus cases increased, total retail sales including food service & drinking establishments improved just [...]