Economy in Brief: June 2015

Germany's Ifo business confidence index fell to 107.4 in June from 108.5 in May. The table below presents a diffusion treatment of the Ifo indexes since we can see sector details faster in this treatment of the survey. The all-sector [...]

Gasoline prices eased 0.8% last week to an average $2.81 per gallon at the pump (-24.1% y/y). They remained up from the low of $2.04 late in January. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in pump [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.3% during April (5.4% y/y), the same as in March which was unrevised. The three-month gain in prices of 5.3% remained below the 8.4% rate of growth [...]

New home sales during May gained 2.2% to 546,000 (AR) from 534,000 in April, initially reported as 517,000. It was the highest sales level since February 2008. The latest figure beat expectations for 520,000 sales in the Action [...]

New orders for durable goods declined 1.8% during May (-5.0% y/y) following a 1.5% April fall, earlier reported as -0.5%. Expectations were for a 0.5% dip in orders for total durable goods in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The EMU private sector advanced to 54.1 in June from 53.6 in May. EMU manufacturing ticked higher while EMU services made a more substantial gain. The services sector now has elevated to a rather strong 80th percentile standing in its [...]

Sales of existing homes increased 5.1% (+5.1% y/y) last month to 5.350 million from 5.090 million during April, revised from 5.040 million. Sales were the highest since November 2009 and stronger than consensus expectations for 5.25 [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) during May notched up to -0.17 from -0.19 in April, revised from -0.15. The three-month moving average remained negative at -0.16, up from its low in March. [...]