Economy in Brief: 2011

Economic momentum, one way or the other, is something the U.S. economy can't muster. The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI) was a negative 0.43 in August. That followed a marginally positive July number which was revised up [...]

Foreign and domestic orders among EMU members continue to trend upward by at an ever slower pace. That is the view from the yr/yr growth rates. Sic month growth rates (memorialized in the two-columns table shows a sharp slowing in [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Leading Economic Indicators index rose 0.3% during August following July's revised 0.6% increase, initially set at 0.5%. The gain beat the Consensus forecast for a 0.1% rise. Despite the [...]

The chart tells a pretty clear story that requires little embellishment from me. The good news is that you can see the pit that the PMIs fell into in recession and Europe is not anywhere near as deep in its drop as it was in the [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) now has risen for four consecutive months. The July increase of 0.8% followed a 0.7% June rise. The gain lessened the y/y decline to 3.2%. The greatest [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance retreated to 423,000 last week from 432,000 during the week prior (revised from 428,000). The figure roughly matched Consensus expectations for 422,000 claims, according to the Action Economics [...]

As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee today left the Federal funds rate in a "range from 0 to 1/4 percent." The Fed funds rate has remained unchanged since late-2008 at its lowest level ever. The discount rate also was left [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that August sales of existing homes rose 7.7% to 5.030M (AR, 18.6% y/y) from an unrevised 4.670 in July. The y/y comparison is positive because of last year's decline after the ending of [...]