Economy in Brief: 2013

Federal Reserve financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q2 show the net volume of credit market borrowing at a $1.4 trillion annual rate, down markedly from $2.1 trillion in Q1. Q1 is moderately revised [...]

Federal Reserve financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q2 show the net volume of credit market borrowing at a $1.4 trillion annual rate, down markedly from $2.1 trillion in Q1. Q1 is moderately revised [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the total mortgage market index increased another 5.5% (-48.4% y/y) last week and added to its 11.2% increase during the prior week. Home purchase mortgage applications rose 6.6% (7.3% [...]

New home sales during August gained 7.9% to 421,000 after a 14.1% July decline to 390,000, initially reported as 394,000. The figure roughly matched expectations for 418,000 sales in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These volume [...]

New orders for durable goods edged up 0.1% last month (13.7% y/y) following a revised 8.1% slump during July, earlier reported as a 7.3% drop. The figure roughly matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A modest [...]

It's hard to pass judgment on what consumers or businesses feel. It's a bit like trying to assess if, when someone says that their favorite color is red, that's correct. We can only assume that consumers do feel the way that they say [...]

The price of regular gasoline declined another 5 cents last week to $3.50 per gallon (-8.7% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to account for [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to 79.7 this month versus 81.8 during August, last month reported as 81.5. The level of the confidence index peaked at 82.1 in June. Consensus expectations were for a decline to [...]