Economy in Brief: April 2019

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City indicated that its index of regional manufacturing sector business activity declined to five in April from 10 in March. It remained down versus the high of 26 reached last May. The ISM-Adjusted [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased to 192,000 (-15.4% year-on-year) during the week ended April 13 Continuing claims for unemployment insurance declined 63,000 to 1.653 million (-10.7% y/y) in the week ending April [...]

The U.K. distributive trades retail survey is generally more upbeat than the wholesale survey in April. That is true for the current readings as well as for the forward-looking expectations. The difference in the assessment, [...]

New orders for durable goods increased 2.7% (2.3% y/y) during March after a 1.1% February decline, revised from -1.6%. A 0.8% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A 7.0% (1.2% y/y) strengthening in [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance jumped 37,000 to 230,000 (9.5% year-on-year) during the week ended April 20 from a slightly upwardly-revised 50-year low of 193,000 in the previous week (was 192,000). The Action Economics [...]

The German IFO gauge fell month-to-month to 6.5 in April from 8.7 in March in its diffusion presentation. The headline was last weaker for one month in February 2016. It was weaker for a series of four months in a row ending December [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index decreased 7.3% (+6.8% y/y) during the week ending April 19. It was the third consecutive weekly drop. Applications to purchase a home fell 4.1% [...]

Japan's money supply is showing no change in its rate of growth across its various measures. The respective 12-month and three-month growth rates are nearly identical for M1, M2 and M3 although each aggregate weakens slightly over six [...]