Economy in Brief: February 2020

The EU Commission sector indexes showed improvement or stability in February with no declines logged among the major components. Among the 18 reporting EMU members, only five showed a decline in overall sentiment on the month compared [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its index of regional manufacturing business activity rose to 5 in February following January's improvement to -1. This indicates renewed expansion in factory sector activity. The [...]

The U.S. economy grew 2.1% (SAAR) during the fourth quarter of 2019, unrevised from the advance estimate. The gain roughly matched growth during the prior two quarters and equaled expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

• Pending home sales jumped 5.2% in January after falling 4.3% in December. • Prospective sales rose in all regions except the West. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales gained 5.2% in January [...]

• Headline durable goods orders fell 0.2% in January but this was stronger than market expectations of a 0.8% m/m decline. • Weak transportation and defense orders more than accounted for the headline January decline. Excluding [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 8,000 to 219,000 (-2.2% y/y) during the week ended February 22 from 211,000 in the prior week, revised up slightly from 210,000. The February 22 result was higher than the Action [...]

Sales of new single-family homes increased 7.9% (18.6% y/y) during January to 764,000 units (SAAR), the highest level since July 2007. Sales increased from 708,000 in December, revised from 694,000. Figures for 2019 were revised. The [...]

French household confidence edged up to 104.4 in February from 103.7 in January. The index is moderately strong at that level with a percentile queue standing of 74.5%. Still, the status of the index and its momentum is unclear since [...]