Economy in Brief: November 2015

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that its November Composite index of factory sector activity increased to -4.9 from -12.7. The reading is up from the May low of -20.8. The production component showed the most improvement [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes gained 0.2% during October (2.1% y/y) following a revised 1.6% September drop, initially reported as -2.3%. Sales remained 4.1% below the [...]

The Chicago Business Barometer in November plummeted 7.5 points to 48.7 and fully reversed its October rise. The latest equaled the lowest reading since May 2015 and was led by a sharp decline in new orders. The drop in the overall [...]

Japan's industrial production index rose by 1.4% in October, pushing the three-month growth rate up to 5.4% annual rate. Manufacturing now has two consecutive monthly gains of more than 1%. Still, growth is negative on balance over [...]

The EU overall sentiment index slipped this month while the index for EMU members was dead flat at last month's level. The EU index sits in the 71st percentile of its historic queue of data. The EMU index is a bit weaker, standing in [...]

Retail sales volumes and consumer confidence in Italy have recovered much better than has the Italian industrial sector. Italian orders fell for the second month in a row. Italian foreign orders have fallen in each of the last three- [...]

Sales of new single-family homes increased 10.7% during October to 495,000 (AR) from 447,000 in September, revised from 468,000. The gain left sales up 4.9% y/y but unchanged since December. Sales of 500,000 had been expected in the [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.8% in September (6.1% y/y). This gain followed a much more modest 0.3% in August and was indeed the strongest monthly increase since March 2013. For [...]