Economy in Brief

Each quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia surveys a group of professional forecasters to gain perspective on the outlook for the U.S. economy. In the August survey, the panel expected the current recovery to continue. [...]

The cash price for a pound of cotton was 95.22 cents last Friday, up 19% since the end of July. By Monday of this week, the futures price was over one dollar up almost 25%. The first two charts show the daily futures and cash prices [...]

Housing starts improved last month to the highest level since April; just before the expiration of the government's home buyer tax credit. August housing starts improved 10.5% m/m to 598,000 (AR) after a 0.4% July uptick which was [...]

For roughly one year, Haver Analytics has used June 2009 in its charts as the end of the most recent recession. Today the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the arbiter for dating recessions, declared June 2009 as the end to [...]

In contrast to last week's report of a decline in German new orders for manufacturing, France, today, reported an increase in new orders for manufacturing from 91.1 (2005=100) in June to 92.7 in July. The level of French new orders is [...]

The only momentum behind the housing market is its penchant for crawling along at a low level. The National Association of Home Builders reported that their index of housing market activity remained low at 13 which was just above the [...]

Credit market borrowing grew $567 billion, seasonally adjusted annual rate, in Q2, stronger than the $498 billion amount in Q1. That figure, in turn, reflects a sizable revision of the tiny $10.3 billion paydown initially reported. [...]

The PPI facts of life: The PPI was subdued in August rising by just 0.1%. This comes after several months of elevation. The elevation, however, was not shared by the core which instead has bumped up in August after being low and [...]