Economy in Brief

Consumers seem willing to spend even though we've seen a souring in sentiment and confidence. Chain store sales rose 0.6% last week after the prior period's 1.4% jump. Together, these increases pulled sales for the month 1.9% above [...]

The pump price for regular gasoline moved three cents higher last week to $2.75 per gallon. That remained down after an upturn through early-May to $2.90. Pulled higher by firm demand, prices have risen from the late-2009 level of [...]

Modest improvement in home prices again was apparent during May. Too much should not be made of it, however, since "improvement" means stability after earlier declines. Seasonally adjusted, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index inched up [...]

India is experiencing high inflation in contrast to China and South Korea, as can be seen in the first chart that shows the year over year percentage changes in the consumer price indexes of the three countries. The financial crisis [...]

Any real improvement in housing has yet to show itself. The Census Department indicated that new home sales last month rose 23.6% from May to 330,000. However, the rise followed a sharper May decline following the end to the Federal [...]

The Belgian National Bank index, a precursor of other EMU indicators and a relatively reliable harbinger of those reports, improved in July after suffering a set-back in June. The BNB index stands short of the two-thirds mark of its [...]

Economic activity began this summer on a sour note. The June National Activity Index (CFNAI), reported by the Chicago Fed, fell to -0.63 which was the lowest level since last October. Moreover, prior months' improvement was hardly [...]

Sales of existing homes continued to suffer with the expiration of a Federal home-buyer tax credit. Existing home sales fell 5.1% to 5.370M last month after a smaller 2.2% May decline, according to the National Association of [...]