Economy in Brief: October 2017

Initial unemployment insurance applications rose to 233,000 (-9.5% y/y) during the week ended October 21 following a decline to 223,000 in the prior week, revised from 222,000. The figure remained near its 1973 low. The Labor [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose 6.6% y/y during August, roughly the same as during the last three months. This compared to a peak 7.1% y/y gain in April. During the last three months, prices [...]

Sales of new single-family homes increased 18.9% (17.0% y/y) during September to 667,000 (AR) from 561,000 in August, revised from 560,000. September sales were at the highest level since October 2007. Expectations in the Action [...]

Back to normal? The German economy is, in some sense, back to normal even as it does excessively well! From mid-2015 through early-2017, the highest diffusion reading has been in wholesaling. But in March 2017, the raw diffusion score [...]

New orders for durable goods increased 2.2% during September (8.3% y/y) following an unrevised 2.0% August gain. A 1.2% increase in orders had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The rise in orders reflected a 5.1% [...]

The EMU composite index fell back to 55.9 in October from 56.7 in September. The reading is still strong and it's the sixth highest composite score for the EMU since January 2012. The reading, the result of a manufacturing gauge that [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level in October slipped to 24.7 from 25.7 during September. The index remained down versus the February high of 38.0. [...]

Retail gasoline prices dipped last week to $2.48 per gallon (+10.5% y/y) from $2.49 one week prior and remained lower than the $2.69 high early last month. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in [...]