Economy in Brief: December 2013

Strength in the factory sector is gaining momentum. Orders for durable goods jumped 3.5% (10.9% y/y) last month following a 0.7% October slip, revised from the initial report of a 2.0% decline. A 21.8% surge (63.9% y/y) in orders for [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline prices recovered to $3.27 (0.4% y/y) last week but remained down versus the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Much of the decline versus last year reflects less driving this [...]

New home sales during November slipped 2.1% to 464,000 (+16.6% y/y) although sales during the prior two months were revised sharply higher. The latest figure beat expectations for 450,000 sales in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

After a long hard run to higher confidence readings peaking at 100.7 in September 2013, Italy's consumer confidence has been eroding again. Confidence in Italy was last lower in February 2013, but in that month it was also much lower. [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) jumped to 0.60 last month from -0.07 during October. The latest level was the highest reached since November of 2012. As a result of the monthly gain, the [...]

The index of consumer sentiment from the Reuters/University of Michigan survey jumped to 82.5 for all of this month from 75.1 during November. That nearly recovered all of the decline since July and roughly matched expectations for an [...]

More confident individuals are dipping into savings to spend. The personal savings rate fell to 4.2% in November from a downwardly revised 4.5% in October. It was the lowest saving rate in nine months. The total amount of personal [...]

Real GDP growth for Q3'13 was revised up again, this time to 4.1% (2.0% y/y) from 3.6%. Growth was the firmest since Q4'11 and outpaced consensus expectations for a 3.6% rise in the Action Economics survey. Domestic final sales rose [...]