Economy in Brief: 2014

The Ifo climate index, the most closely watched of the German economic indicators, fell by 0.6 points in October. The index stands at the 55th percentile of its historic rank, meaning it's only five percentage points above its [...]

New home sales during September edged up 0.2% m/m to 467,000 (17.0% y/y) following a revised 15.3% August rise to 466,000, initially reported as 504,000. It was the highest level of sales since July 2008. The latest figure essentially [...]

Germany's consumer climate for November, measured by the survey group GfK, rose for the first time in two months. German consumer climate had been at a level of 8.9 on this gauge in July and August. In September, it fell to 8.6; in [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) improved 0.5% during August following a 0.2% July gain, revised from 0.1%. The latest increase left the y/y rise at 4.7%, nearly its lowest gain since [...]

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators from the Conference Board increased 0.8% (6.3% y/y) last month following no change in August, revised from 0.2%. The series was at the highest level since August 2007 but the y/y gain of 6.3% [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) for September rebounded to 0.47 from a little-revised -0.25 in August. The three-month moving average improved to 0.25. During the last ten years, there has [...]

The job market remains on a firm footing. Initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ended October 18 rose to 283,000 (-18.4% y/y) from 266,000, revised from 264,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected [...]

European markets reacted positively overnight to the release of the PMI data by Markit. The table below summarizes the recent PMI data. The table is a mixture of flash and historic (revised-flash or finalized) data. Actually, the [...]