Economy in Brief: February 2015

Chicago purchasing managers indicated that their February Business Barometer Index dropped sharply to 45.8 this month from an unrevised 59.4 in January. Severe winter weather and a West Coast port strike were sited by the Purchasing [...]

Suddenly after outright falls for two straight months, Italy's inflation rate is up by 0.6% in February. The monthly gain is the largest since October 2011. Italy's domestic inflation gauge also reversed to gain 0.3% after two [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes rebounded 1.7% during January, recouping a 1.5% December decline, last month reported as a 3.7% drop. These sales are reported as an index [...]

Real GDP growth during Q4 2014 was revised down to 2.2% (2.4% y/y) from the advance estimate of a 2.6% gain. The increase compared to an expected 2.1% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During all of last year, real GDP [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.8% in December, after November's 0.7% gain, which was revised slightly from 0.8% reported initially. These two months put December up 8.4% at an [...]

New orders for durable goods improved 2.8% (5.4% y/y) following sharp declines in four of the previous five months. Orders for commercial aircraft more-than-doubled m/m (-3.1% y/y) but motor vehicle & parts bookings fell 2.9% (+8.9% [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims increased to 313,000 during the week ended February 21 from 282,000 in the prior week, revised from 283,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims notched up to 294,500, the highest level [...]

GfK projects a new high reading for Germany's consumer climate for March. Climate is expected to improve to 9.7 in March from 9.3 in February. The lagging components for economic and income expectations as well as for buying climate [...]