Economy in Brief: 2020

• Purchase applications continue to decline. • Mortgage interest rates rise slightly. The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Loan Applications Index eased 0.6% (+54.3% y/y) in the week ended October 16, about the same as during the [...]

Sequential U.K. inflation (from 12-months to six-months to three-months) has no clear trends, but its profile remains in a low band of outcomes ranging between a pace of 1% and 0.1%. Core inflation (also excluding tobacco and alcohol) [...]

• Purchase applications continue to decline. • Mortgage interest rates rise slightly. The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Loan Applications Index eased 0.6% (+54.3% y/y) in the week ended October 16, about the same as during the [...]

German PPI trends continue to be weak and show prices declines when expressed as year-over-year changes. The German PPI now has eight monthly declines in a row logged for its year-over-year PPI change. The year-on-year drops was [...]

• Single-family home building increases to highest level since June 2007. • Permits to build single-family units jump, while multi-family permits drop. Housing starts rose 1.9% (11.1% y/y) in September to 1.415 million units (SAAR) [...]

• Natural gas prices jump. • Crude oil prices rise for the second straight week. • Gasoline prices decline. Natural gas prices increased 13.6% (-3.6% y/y) to $2.17/mmbtu in the week ended October 16 after a 15.8% rise to $1.91/mmbtu [...]

Japan has a string of three-monthly surpluses in a row, the first such string since 2017. Both export and import trends have been declining with both flows generally falling since late-2018 or early-2019. While year-on-year trends [...]

• Housing market activity is exceptionally strong. • Number of prospective buyers improves to record level. • Monthly increases were mixed regionally. The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders- [...]