Economy in Brief: October 2010

Price discounts seem to have buoyed home sales last month. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes during September increased 10.0% to 4.53M following a little revised 7.3% August increase. September [...]

What every homeowner needs is something to sit on. But a poor job market can put off the day of purchasing that new item. During 2009 furniture sales, as reported by the U.S. Commerce Dept., fell 11% following declines during the [...]

Germany's IFO survey is strong in October. Expectations were for weakness to gnaw away at the German economy but instead the economy is pushing ahead. The diffusion reading on the Climate index rose the better part of two points to [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose 0.3% during September after a downwardly revised 0.1% August uptick that was initially reported at 0.3%. Nevertheless, the latest reading was a record [...]

There was further loss of forward economic momentum last quarter. Moreover, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank indicated that Q4 began with little improvement. The Bank's October index of regional factory sector activity improved [...]

Another Split decision - The Euro-Area PMIs were split in October as the MFG index rose and the services index fell. While the two indices have been tracking together in this expansion for several months, that tracking has been an [...]

A sidle to the right is the continuing step for initial claims for unemployment insurance. They fell to 452,000 last week from 475,000 during the prior week. That figure, however, was revised up from 462,000. Claims first hit these [...]

Recent trends can be encouraging, but delinquency levels are less heartening. That is the message the American Bankers Association data which indicates that loan delinquencies across all types of credit recently have fallen. That may [...]