Economy in Brief

Consumers in several countries are maintaining a rather firm spending pace, judged by new data on Total and purchases of goods. In fact, in Holland, the last few months have seen a smart rebound from a weak performance in 2003 and [...]

Worry that some potential bursting of the "bubble" in housing market valuations at least in part rests on the idea that homeowners are borrowing against those "inflated" values to support current spending. In fact, real spending [...]

The University of Michigan reported that consumer sentiment in January rose another 2.1% to 93.4. The rise was the third off the October low which has totaled 25.9% and the gain surpassed Consensus expectations for an increase to [...]

The University of Michigan reported that consumer sentiment in January rose another 2.1% to 93.4. The rise was the third off the October low which has totaled 25.9% and the gain surpassed Consensus expectations for an increase to [...]

Industrial sales and orders rebounded markedly in Italy in November after pausing in October, according to data reported today by Istat, the Italian national statistical agency. Total orders gained 1.8% and stand 4.0% above a year [...]

The Index of General Business Conditions in the manufacturing sector for January from the Philadelphia Fed fell sharply to 3.3 from 10.9 in December. Consensus expectations had been for improvement to 13.1. It was the lowest level for [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped 36,000 to 271,000 last week following a downwardly revised 15,000 increase the prior week. Consensus expectations had been for 315,000 claims. The latest figure covers the survey [...]

Housing starts slumped 8.0% m/m last month to 1.933M units following a little revised 3.4% increase in November. The decline was to the lowest level since March but did not prevent starts for all of 2005 from rising 6.0% to a record [...]