Economy in Brief: June 2017

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% (3.5% y/y) during May following a 0.2% April gain, revised from 0.3%. A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Three- [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose at a 9.1% annualized rate during the last three reported months, the strongest rate since May 2013. During April, the index increased 0.7% (6.9% y/y) [...]

Climate backs off in month as year-on-year gains continue their small pick up The French industrial climate gauge backtracked slightly to 108.4 in June from 108.8 in May. The rank or queue standing of the index falls into its 78th [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ended June 17 increased to 241,000 (-7.9% y/y) from 238,000 during the prior week, revised from 237,000. Expectations called for 240,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Japan's sector indices from METI show gains across the board led by a huge rise in Construction. The construction index jumped by 8.1 points in April the largest month-to-month gain in the history of the series that goes back to early [...]

Sales of existing single-family homes increased 1.1% during May to 5.620 million (AR, 2.7% y/y) from 5.560 million in April, revised from 5.770 million. Expectations had been for 5.540 million purchases in the Action Economics [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index gained 0.6% (-14.7% y/y) in the week ended June 16, after a 2.8% increase during the prior week. Purchase applications eased 1.0% (+8.7% y/y) [...]

Regular gasoline prices fell to $2.32 per gallon last week (-1.5% y/y), the lowest level since late-March. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. Since prices normally rise [...]