Economy in Brief

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the total number of mortgage applications fell by more than one-third last week and since their peak two weeks ago are down by almost one-half. Applications had been boosted by lower [...]

The German IFO index made a small rebound in January and that has caused some excited stirring in markets. Still the IFO Business climate index is very weak and the EMU sentiment index for Germany (Dec) is even lower than it was in [...]

Chain store sales last week retraced the prior week's increase, and more, with a 1.8% decline, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Index. The drop followed the prior week's 1.1% increase and it [...]

The recent rise in regular gasoline prices stabilized last week after three consecutive weeks of increase. At an average $1.84 per gallon prices about matched the prior week's level but that still was up 13 cents from the recent low, [...]

The S&P/Case-Shiller 20 Home Price Composite Index fell another 1.9% during November. That pulled prices down 18.2% during the last twelve months and by 25.2% since their peak in May 2006. The series dates back only to 2000. The [...]

The Conference Board reported that its December index of consumer confidence fell to a record low last month. The drop to a level of 38.0 followed a November uptick and it lowered Confidence by more than one-half from its year ago [...]

The Conference Board reported that its December index of consumer confidence fell to a record low last month. The drop to a level of 38.0 followed a November uptick and it lowered Confidence by more than one-half from its year ago [...]

Last week, Robert Brusca noted how the global slowdown was affecting international trade by citing Italy's trade data. Further evidence of the decline in world trade became available today with the release of December trade data for [...]