Economy in Brief: 2014

Initial claims for jobless insurance fell to 280,000 during the week ended September 13 from 316,000 in the prior week, revised from 315,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 305,000 in the latest week. The four-week [...]

Housing starts during August slumped 14.4% to 956,000 AR (+8.0% y/y) following a 22.9% July jump to 1,117,000, revised from 1,093,000. The latest level missed expectations for 1,035,000 starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

U.K. nominal retail sales growth bounced back in August, rising by 0.2% after a 0.3% July decline. The sequential growth rates of retail sales have been extremely steady over three months, six months and 12 months around and just [...]

The U.S. current account deficit decreased in Q2'14 to $98.5 billion from $102.1 billion in Q1.The deficit amounted to 2.3% of GDP, roughly the same as during all of last year. The Action Economics Forecast Survey called for a deficit [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo jumped to 59 during September from an unrevised from 55 in August. The latest figure was the highest since November 2005 and beat [...]

The consumer price index declined 0.2% during August (+1.7% y/y) following an unrevised 0.1% uptick. The decline was the first since April of last year and missed expectations for no change in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The overall inflation rate in the European Monetary Union settled in at 0.4% year-over-year in August. That's the same pace as the previous month, but it keeps the downtrend for year-over-year inflation in place. Core inflation is up [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales fell 2.6% last week (+3.0% y/y). The decline left sales so far in September 1.0% below August when sales fell 1.5% from July. During the [...]