Economy in Brief: January 2014

The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index gained another 0.9% during November following increases near 1.0% during the prior three months. These lifted the y/y rise to 13.8%, its strongest since February 2006. The [...]

The durable goods manufacturing sector had a good year in 2013. New orders increased 5.1% for the full year following a 4.1% gain in 2012. These increases were, however, slower than the double-digit gains of the prior two years. [...]

Italy's consumer confidence rebounded in January to 98 from a December low of 96.4. At this level the January reading for consumer confidence is still below its level of November 2013- not really much of a bounce. The level ranks in [...]

New home sales increased 16.7% last year to 430,000 units, adding to the 20.2% during 2012. Sales were at their highest level since 2008. Despite the increases, however, sales remained a fraction of the annual peak of 1.279 million [...]

Germany's diffusion indices have been at it again as they improved in January compared to December. For business confidence it is the third straight month of month-to-month increases and it is the third straight month of increases for [...]

ew home sales declined 7.0% to 414,000 (+4.5% y/y), the second month of decline. November sales were revised lower. The latest figure fell short of expectations for 457,000 sales in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These volume [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) edged up 0.1% (7.6% y/y) during November following a 0.5% October gain. The increase was the smallest since July 2012. During the last three months prices [...]

Retail sales for Italy in November were flat, marking their best performance since August when sales also were flat. The last increase in Italian retail sales came in May 2013 with a 0.1% rise. Despite the fact that there was a better [...]