Economy in Brief: September 2013

Labor market improvement is continuing in full swing. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 305,000 during the week ended September 21 from 310,000 in the prior week, revised from 309,000. Expectations had been for an [...]

Federal Reserve financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q2 show the net volume of credit market borrowing at a $1.4 trillion annual rate, down markedly from $2.1 trillion in Q1. Q1 is moderately revised [...]

Federal Reserve financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q2 show the net volume of credit market borrowing at a $1.4 trillion annual rate, down markedly from $2.1 trillion in Q1. Q1 is moderately revised [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the total mortgage market index increased another 5.5% (-48.4% y/y) last week and added to its 11.2% increase during the prior week. Home purchase mortgage applications rose 6.6% (7.3% [...]

New home sales during August gained 7.9% to 421,000 after a 14.1% July decline to 390,000, initially reported as 394,000. The figure roughly matched expectations for 418,000 sales in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These volume [...]

New orders for durable goods edged up 0.1% last month (13.7% y/y) following a revised 8.1% slump during July, earlier reported as a 7.3% drop. The figure roughly matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A modest [...]

It's hard to pass judgment on what consumers or businesses feel. It's a bit like trying to assess if, when someone says that their favorite color is red, that's correct. We can only assume that consumers do feel the way that they say [...]

The price of regular gasoline declined another 5 cents last week to $3.50 per gallon (-8.7% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to account for [...]