Economy in Brief: 2012

Pending sales of single-family homes fell 2.6% last month and reversed the July gain, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Sales have risen nearly one-third from the 2010 low. Sales drooped last month across most [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance fell to 359,000 during the week ended September 22 versus a revised 385,000 during the prior week. The latest was the lowest since the third week of July. The four-week moving average of initial [...]

Durable goods orders fell by an outsized 13.2% (-6.7% y/y) last month following a lessened 3.3% advance during July. A 4.5% decline had been the Consensus forecast. Fewer orders for transportation equipment led the decline with a [...]

French household confidence edged lower in Sept to 85 from 86. At that level it is in the bottom 11% of all values back to Sept 1991. It’s a weak showing but not one that is continuing weaken that rapidly…still it is continuing to [...]

The new home sales market cooled off last month.New home sales in August slipped 0.3% to 373,000 from 374,000 during the prior month, revised from 372,000. The slip compared to Consensus expectations for 380,000 sales. The shortfall [...]

The market for home mortgages continues to heat up with interest rates touching levels not seen since the 1940s. The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications increased 2.8% last week (14.0% y/y) following a [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) rose a lessened 0.2% during July following a 0.6% June increase, last month reported as 0.7%. It was the easiest of the last six consecutive monthly gains. [...]

Haver's updates today include several for Poland. Most of them show that the Polish economy, that had outperformed many of its Eastern European neighbors, is now continuing to slow down.The index of industrial production has [...]