Economy in Brief: 2019

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index increased 8.1% (57.1% y/y) in the week ending September 27, following a 10.1% decline during the prior week. Applications to refinance a loan rebounded 14.2% [...]

The ADP National Employment Report indicated that private nonfarm payrolls increased 135,000 (1.7% y/y) during September after an August rise of 157,000, revised from 195,000. Payrolls increased 143,000 during July, revised from [...]

The Autodata Corporation reported that sales of light vehicles during September improved 0.9% (-0.6% y/y) to 17.23 million units (SAAR) from 17.07 million during August. The increase left the average level of sales during Q3'19 at [...]

The value of construction put-in-place improved 0.1% (-1.9% y/y) during August following a little-revised stability in July. A 0.4% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Construction activity in the private [...]

Taking a full count of the countries and regions in the top panel of the table, ten of 17 have PMIs below 50 in September. There are two countries Turkey and Taiwan with readings right at 50 (note: Taiwan is below 50 but rounds up to [...]

Weakness continues in the factory sector. The ISM manufacturing index fell to 47.8 during September from 49.1 in August. It was the lowest level since June 2009 which was the end of the last recession. The Action Economics Forecast [...]

In the week ended September 30, the U.S. pump price for gasoline of $2.64 per gallon (-7.8% y/y) compared to $2.65 during the prior week. These were the highest prices since early-August. Haver Analytics adjusts these price figures [...]

The unemployment rate in the EMU has fallen in August and the ongoing drop speaks to the ongoing economic expansion- not withstanding concerns to the contrary. However, the chart reminds us that any rise in the unemployment rate is an [...]