Economy in Brief: June 2014

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 1.0% last week (-44.7% y/y) and added to the prior week's 9.2% skid. Applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September 2012. [...]

New orders for durable goods declined 1.0% (+2.7% y/y) during May and reversed an unrevised 0.8% April rise. The decline contrasted with expectations for no change in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Fewer new orders for [...]

The GfK German consumer confidence indicator rose to 8.9 in July from 8.6 in June. This forward looking indicator sits in the top 3% of its historic queue. Its components that lag by one month are also quite strong. The economic [...]

Real GDP was revised to a 2.9% annual rate of decline in Q1 (+1.5% y/y) following a 1.0% drop reported last month. It was the largest decline in five years and compared to a 1.8% drop in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Consumer [...]

The Conference Board reported that their reading of consumer confidence improved 3.6% (3.8% y/y) to 85.2 this month from 82.2 in May, revised from 83.0. The latest figure was the highest since January 2008 and beat expectations for [...]

Germany's Ifo index's expectation component dropped sharply to 6.0 in June from 8.6 in May. The index has dropped sharply over the last two months. Historically, its two-month drop is greater than this only about 17% of the time. The [...]

New home sales during May increased 18.6% m/m (16.9% y/y) to 504,000 from 425,000 during April, initially reported as 433,000. The latest was the highest level of sales since May 2008 and beat expectations for 440,000 sales in the [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) held steady during April, the weakest monthly reading since November. As a result, the year-to-year growth rate fell to 5.9% from an 8.5% peak in July of [...]