Economy in Brief: October 2018

New orders for durable goods increased 0.8% (7.9% y/y) during September following a 4.6% August jump, revised from 4.5%. A 1.9% decline had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The rise in orders was heavily [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance increased to 215,000 (-8.1% y/y) during the week ended October 20 from an unrevised 210,000 in the previous week. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a reading of 213,000. The four- [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 4.9% (-15.6% y/y) in the week ending October 19 following declines during the prior two weeks. Purchase loan applications improved 2.0% (0.2% [...]

The market for new homes weakened sharply this year. New single-family home sales fell 5.5% (-13.2% y/y) during September to 553,000 (SAAR). It was the fourth consecutive monthly decline, pushing sales 13.1% below the high reached in [...]

The EMU region has continued to expand in October, but the composite PMI reading has logged its weakest reading since September 2016 with both manufacturing and services on lows that are their worst on about that same timeline. [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index for house purchases increased 0.3% (6.1% y/y) during August following a 0.4% gain during July, revised from 0.2%. Over the last three months, the index rose at a lessened 3.8% [...]

The German PPI rose by a strong 0.6% in September, but the PPI excluding energy gained just 0.1%. The sequential inflation forces over shorter horizons show more pressure for headline PPI and CPI measures while the ex-energy measures [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level declined to 37.2 during October and reversed its September improvement. Despite the fall in the [...]