Economy in Brief: September 2018

Real gross domestic product grew at an unrevised 4.2% annual rate in Q2'18 (2.9% year-on-year) in line with the expectations of the Action Economics Forecast Survey. This is the strongest quarterly growth rate since Q3'14 when the [...]

Initial unemployment insurance applications rose to 214,000 (-17.1% y/y) during the week ended September 22 from 202,000 in the prior week, which was revised up by 1,000. A smaller increase to 206,000 was anticipated in the Action [...]

Yesterday BEA released its estimates of personal income at the state level for 2018:Q2. The numbers reflect the benchmark GDP revision. Income growth is rather dispersed. In the second quarter Texas led the nation, with a 6.0% growth [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously at today's meeting to increase the federal funds rate target 25 basis points to a range between 2.00% and 2.25%. The last time the range was set this high was in April 2008. The [...]

The U.K. distributive trades survey shows mixed performance in September within retailing and within wholesaling as well as between the two sectors. Analysis of this dual-sector two-horizon report is somewhat complicated. U.K. [...]

New single-family home sales increased 3.5% (12.7% y/y) during August to 629,000 (SAAR) from 608,000 in July, revised from 627,000. June's sales level also was revised lower to 618,000 from 638,000. Sales during August were 11.7% [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 2.9% last week (-15.5% y/y) following a 1.6% rise. The effective interest rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage increased w/w to 4.51%, the [...]

Gasoline prices, at $2.84 per gallon last week (10.1% y/y), were unchanged from the prior week and have been roughly steady since May. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The [...]