Economy in Brief: January 2014

In January the overall sentiment indicator for the European Union (EU) fell while sentiment indicator for the European Monetary Union (EMU) rose. Still, in the monetary union there were numbers of countries that saw setbacks to their [...]

Real GDP growth for Q4'13 eased to 3.2% (2.7% y/y) from 4.1% during the third quarter. The gain roughly matched consensus expectations for a 3.3% rise in the Action Economics survey. For all of last year growth also moderated to 1.9%, [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed "decided to make a further measured reduction in the pace of its asset purchases. Beginning in February, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed [...]

The overall U.S. rate of unemployment of 6.7% last month was its lowest since October 2008. Improvement was registered across the country and gained momentum in many states. While the country's overall jobless rate is down 2.2 [...]

Money growth rates around the world have become somewhat mixed. Year-over-year growth rates in the United States and the European Monetary Union have slowed slightly while growth rates in the UK and Japan have been accelerating. The [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total mortgage market index slipped just 0.2% last week (-50.9% y/y) following firm gains during the prior three weeks. Applications have risen 19.9% since the end of last month. [...]

The durable goods manufacturing sector had a good year in 2013. New orders increased 5.1% for the full year following a 4.1% gain in 2012. These increases were, however, slower than the double-digit gains of the prior two years. [...]

Consumers are feeling better about things. Consumer confidence, as measured by the Conference Board, improved to an index reading of 80.7 this month from December's 78.5, revised from 78.1. The latest gain outpaced the Action [...]