Economy in Brief: 2011

The German IFO survey is showing a great deal of stress as expectations have slid well into the lower portion of their range. The expectations diffusion reading lies at the boundary of the lower 25th percentile of its historic queue [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that September sales of existing homes slipped 3.0% to 4.910M (AR, +11.3% y/y) following an upwardly revised 8.4% August increase, last month reported as 7.7%. The y/y comparison remained [...]

Sales flounder and appearing to swim - The UK saw retail sales rebound sharply in September rising by 0.8% month-to-month after a flat performance in August. The spurt is welcome relief to a still staggered economy. But there is less [...]

For the second consecutive month, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's index of regional factory sector improved. The October General Activity index rose to 8.7 from an unrevised -17.5 in September. The figure easily beat Consensus [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Leading Economic Indicators index rose 0.2% during September following an unrevised 0.3% August increase. The gain matched the Consensus forecast. The 1-month diffusion index improved to a still- [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance fell to 403,000 last week versus 409,000 a week earlier (revised from 404,000). The latest figure compared to 400,000 as expected in the Action Economics survey. The 4-week moving average of claims [...]

A surge in starts of multi-family units was the impetus behind a 15.0% m/m surge in housing starts last month. The level of starts overall was 658,000 (AR), the highest since April of last year. Expectations were for 590,000 units. [...]

The Belgian National Bank consumer confidence index has edged up in October and at a time that other measures in surrounding countries seem to be getting weaker. After operating without a real government for an extended period of time [...]