Economy in Brief: May 2015

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 1.6% last week (+10.9% y/y), down for the fifth straight week. Refinance applications fell 3.9% (+8.4% y/y) to the lowest level since early [...]

Gasoline prices rose to an average $2.77 per gallon at the pump (-24.5% y/y) last week from 2.74 in the prior week. It was the highest level of prices since early-December and prices were roughly one-third higher versus the low of [...]

German consumer climate will advance to 10.2 in in June after logging 10.1 in May. The estimate of climate continues to snake higher in Germany even though its pace has been damped in recent months. The climate reading is at the top [...]

Deterioration in economic activity is spreading throughout the country. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated that Texas business conditions eased sharply this month. The overall business activity index deteriorated to its [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index increased 1.2% in May to 95.4 (+16.1% y/y) after falling to 94.3 during April, which was revised from 95.2. The latest figure was marginally better than forecasts of 94.5 in the Action [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.3% during March (5.2% y/y) following a 0.6% February rise, revised from 0.7%. The three-month gain in prices declined to 5.0%, below the 8.3% rate [...]

On the whole the U.K. retail and wholesaling sectors are doing alright in Q2, but something is missing. The business situation for the U.K. retail sector rose to 20 in Q2 2015 from 11 in Q1. For wholesaling, the business situation [...]

New home sales during April recovered 6.8% to 517,000 units (26.1% y/y) from 484,000 in March, initially reported as 481,000. The latest figure beat expectations for 503,000 sales in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales are [...]