Economy in Brief: 2014

On the plus side of things, both EMU credit and money supply have begun to bend their growth rates higher. However, for money supply, growth is still weak. It remains below its feeble 2013 cycle peak. For credit, the growth rate has [...]

New home sales during August surged 18.0% (33.3% y/y) to 504,000 from a revised 427,000 in July, initially reported as 412,000. It was the highest level of sales since May 2008. The increase easily beat expectations for 430,000 sales [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 4.1% last week (-25.1% y/y) following the prior week's 7.9% rise. Applications were near the lowest level of the economic recovery. [...]

In the wake of the weak PMI data from Markit released yesterday, it's not surprising to see that the German Ifo index continues to slip in September. The Ifo all-sector index has fallen from 5.3 in August to a level of 2.3 in [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond reported that its September Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector activity improved to 14 from 12 in August. It was the highest level since February 2011. Driving the index higher was improvement [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales ticked 0.1% higher last week following a sharp 2.6% decline during the prior week. They strengthened, however, by 4.1% y/y due to declines [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline declined to $3.35 last week (-4.1% y/y) and remained at the lowest level since mid-February. To account for seasonal patterns, Haver Analytics constructs factors for adjustment of pump [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) ticked 0.1% higher (4.5% y/y) during July following a 0.3% June gain, revised from 0.4%. The latest increase was the weakest in three months and lowered the [...]