Economy in Brief

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) improved last month to its highest level since August. Regardless, the index remained down sharply since its March peak, suggesting that the economy's recovery has lost forward momentum. [...]

It may be because the mortgage pool has fewer loans in it, but the percentage of loans that are delinquent has peaked. As of Q3, the percentage fell to 9.1%, down from its Q1 high of 10.1%. But indeed, the number of loans serviced [...]

Orders do slow: French orders growth has slowed considerably to just 0.6% year-over-year while for Italy year-over-year growth is still at 12.6%. Foreign growth is still strong for both France and Italy making domestic orders growth [...]

Wind-aided retail sales- The total value of UK retail sales rose by 0.8% in October after a flat September and a declining August. It's not much of a revival for a series that is the equivalent of wind-aided in an Olympic sprint event [...]

Economic momentum may have picked up. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank indicated that its November index of regional factory sector activity improved greatly to 22.5, its highest level this year. The latest outpaced Consensus [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose slightly last week to 439,000 from 437,000 (revised from 435,000) but remained near their lowest level since early-July. The 4-week moving average, which smoothes out some of the w/w [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose 0.5% during October after an upwardly revised 0.5% September increase that was initially reported at 0.3%. The latest reading was a record high. Again, [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that a 14.4% w/w decline in mortgage applications lowered them to the lowest level since July. Nevertheless, applications remained up more than one-third from last year's low. Last week's [...]