Economy in Brief

The news that the U.S. economy, notably the consumer, is recovering from the Winter doldrums has given further life to energy prices. Suspecting that a more confident consumer will drive further, regular gasoline prices last week [...]

Both home sales and home prices rose slightly last month, according to the National Association of Realtors. The overriding message, however, was that lower prices can spur sales. Sales of existing homes rose 2.9% last month to 4.68M [...]

Consumers' attitudes are rising even further on expectations that the worst of the recession has passed. The May index of consumer confidence, reported by the Conference Board, improved for the third consecutive month and the latest [...]

Order trends have deteriorated for both EMU domestic and foreign orders but each series also shows signs of a turn. Three month rates of growth are not as bad as six month rates of growth although six month rates of growth are worse [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank reported that its National Activity Index improved during April to the highest level since October of last year. The reading of -2.06 was up from a downwardly revised March figure. Both figures were up [...]

The S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 20 Home Price Index fell 2.2% during March. The latest decline lowered prices by 18.7% during the last twelve months and by 31.4% since their peak in May 2006. The series dates back only to 2000 and the [...]

IFO improves, barely -- The IFO survey is in the same boat as the rest of the recent economic indicators. The index is off its low, and rising but still showing contraction. The improvement in May continued but was very slight for [...]

IFO improves, barely -- The IFO survey is in the same boat as the rest of the recent economic indicators. The index is off its low, and rising but still showing contraction. The improvement in May continued but was very slight for [...]