Economy in Brief: 2015

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes fell 2.3% during September (+2.5% y/y) following an unrevised 1.4% August decline. Expectations were for a 1.0% increase according to [...]

The economy grew 1.5% (AR) last quarter following a 3.9% Q2 increase. The shedding of inventories sapped 1.4 percentage points from growth, reversing modest accumulation during the prior six months. Inventory decumulation came as [...]

The EU and EMU indices are split this month with the EMU area improving and the broader EU index that includes EMU nations deteriorating. Still, only five of 16 EMU nations showed deteriorated indices in October. The overall EU index [...]

The economy grew 1.5% (AR) last quarter following a 3.9% Q2 increase. The shedding of inventories sapped 1.4 percentage points from growth, reversing accumulation during the prior six months. Inventory decumulation came as final [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed indicated that "economic activity will expand at a moderate pace" instead of suggesting that "recent global economic and financial developments may restrain economic [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 3.5% in the latest week (+8.1% y/y) following an 11.8% rise during the prior period. The Association indicated that extreme volatility in [...]

GfK reports this month that concerns over the impact of migrants in Germany have set back the expected confidence reading for November. But the lagging components of the index show the sharpest drop is in economic expectations. [...]

Gasoline prices at the pump declined last week to $2.23 per gallon (-27.1% y/y), the lowest level since the middle of February. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in pump prices. The seasonally [...]