Economy in Brief: December 2010

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that overall mortgage applications plunged 18.6% last week to the lowest since early this year. The decline was led by a 24.6% weekly drop in applications to refinance a mortgage. Applications [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that November sales of existing homes rose 5.6% to 4.680M following an unrevised 2.2% October decline. November sales fell short of Consensus expectations for 4.74M but for the quarter [...]

Real GDP increased 2.6% (SAAR) last quarter which was roughly equal to the preliminary report of a 2.5% rise issued last month. The gain matched expectations for a 2.6% rise by MMS International. So far since the last recession GDP [...]

Consumers, in many countries appear to be loosing confidence. Yesterday it was the consumers in the Low countries who reported having second thoughts about their futures. Today it is the consumers in the UK and Sweden. Consumers in [...]

Japan's all-industry index for business fell to 95.9 in October from 96.1 in September. The construction and services (tertiary sector) improved in the month. But industry fell sharply, by 2% month-to-month compared to gains in the [...]

Reports of aggressive promotions paid a dividend last week and spurred retail sales. Sales at chain stores increased 1.7% w/w to the highest level since early-August. However, since the surge followed weakness early in the month, [...]

The recent firming of gasoline prices took a breather last week. Nevertheless, as the pump price for regular gasoline remained at $2.98 per gallon. It still was the firmest since October 2008. Prices have risen roughly fifty cents per [...]

Data on consumer confidence in December were released today for the Netherlands. A few days ago similar data for Belgium were released. There are no measures of consumer confidence for the third low country, Luxembourg. In the [...]