Economy in Brief: 2019

Following four consecutive months of increase, the Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo eased during November. The 1.4% decline from October to 70 left the index up 16.7% y/y, and [...]

Industrial production fell 0.4% (-0.1% y/y) during September.... Industrial production and capacity data and US Population-Weighted Heating and Cooling Days are included in Haver's USECON database. Additional detail on production and [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions for October rose to 4.0........ The Empire State figures are diffusion indexes, which are calculated by subtracting the percentage of respondents reporting declines [...]

Import prices fell a greater-than-expected 0.5% during October (-3.0% year-on-year), following a downwardly revised 0.1% gain in September (was 0.2%). The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a 0.4% decline in October. These [...]

The one point of crystal clear clarity on the issue of trade is that trade flows are slowing down. One –sometimes exception is for nonmanufacturing goods where commodity prices are playing a role rather than stronger trends in [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that its Fixed Rate Mortgage Housing Affordability Index rose 2.8% to 164.3 during September (11.5% y/y), the fourth consecutive month of increase. Despite the rise, affordability remained [...]

Total business inventories held steady during September (3.7% y/y) following a 0.1% August dip, revised from 0.0%. Total business sales weakened 0.2% (+0.5% y/y) after a 0.1% uptick, revised from 0.2%. The inventory-to-sales (I/S) [...]

Industrial production fell a more-than-expected 0.8% m/m (-1.1% y/y) in October on top of a slightly upwardly revised 0.3% m/m decline in September. This was the third monthly decline in the past four months and the weakest monthly [...]