Economy in Brief: January 2017

January brings a slight rolling over of the values for the IFO index. Each sector has a reading that is slightly lower month-to-month. The combination all-sector index is lower by 2.2 points on the month. This is comprised of a [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose 0.5% during November after a 0.3% gain in October, revised from 0.4%. The y/y change remained fairly steady at 6.1%, but the three-month annualized growth of [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 4.0% last week (-15.9% y/y) following a 0.8% rise during the week prior. Purchase applications rebounded 6.0% (2.3% y/y) after a 5.2% [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions in January rose to 33.3 from 26.1 during December, revised from 30.4. It was the highest level since October 2015. Forty-nine percent of [...]

During all of 2016, sales of existing homes increased 3.8% to 5.452 million, the highest level since 2006, when sales reached 6.478 million. During December alone, however, sales eased 2.8% (+0.7% y/y) to 5.490 million units (AR) from [...]

It's a split decision on the EMU this month as services are weaker and manufacturing is stronger. However, the relatively greater services weight has the tiebreaker in terms of the impact on the overall PMI which is slightly lower in [...]

Regular gasoline prices dipped to $2.33 per gallon (+25.3% y/y) last week following a slip to $2.36 per gallon in the prior week. Prices peaked at $2.39 earlier in the month, and remained down from a 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. [...]

Japan's sector surveys were only able to crawl higher in November as the industrial and services gauges rose while construction slipped to hold the overall advance back. The all-industry index rose to 103.6 in November from 103.3 in [...]