Economy in Brief: April 2020

• Spending cutbacks are widespread due to the coronavirus.

• Spending cutbacks are widespread due to the coronavirus.

U.S. GDP declined 4.8% (SAAR) last quarter following a 2.1% Q4 2019 rise. A 3.8% fall had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The decline was the first since Q1'14 and the largest since an 8.4% drop in Q4'08. The [...]

U.S. GDP declined 4.8% (SAAR) last quarter following a 2.1% Q4 2019 rise. A 3.8% fall had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The decline was the first since Q1'14 and the largest since an 8.4% drop in Q4'08. The [...]

• • PREVIOUS>>>>The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Application Index eased 0.3% (+70.0% y/y) in the week ended April 17 ......... The survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage [...]

• Pending home sales fell 20.8% in March to its lowest level since May 2011. • Prospective sales declined at double-digit rates in all regions of the country. • Mortgage applications suggest substantial weakness ahead. The National [...]

The Federal Reserve left the target for the Fed funds rate in a range of 0.00% to 0.25% at today's meeting of the FOMC. In the Fed's press release, it stated "The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to [...]

There is no-catching the dropping, tumbling knife There is not much to analyze in the EU indexes this month. The bottom fell out and everything went down with it. One sector, construction, shows some 'resilience' (as it has been doing [...]