Economy in Brief: July 2018

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its index of regional manufacturing sector business activity declined to 23 in July, the lowest level since March. The index remained higher than its low of -12 in December 2015. [...]

Consumer confidence across Europe remains a relative bright spot around midyear. The assessments here range from August for the forward-looking GfK survey for Germany to June for the United Kingdom. The U.K. is still toiling under the [...]

Improvement in factory sector activity continues. New orders for durable goods strengthened 1.0% (3.2% y/y) during June after declines in the prior two months. The 0.3% May shortfall was revised from -0.6%. The latest gain fell short [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance increased to 217,000 during the week ended July 21, 9,000 higher than the 208,000 of the prior week. That was revised up by 1,000, but it remains the lowest since December 6, 1969. The Action [...]

IFO Indexes The German IFO survey shows that the three major aggregate gauges: climate, current situation and expectations are all weakening year-over-year. The current situation is having its first year-on-year decline in some time. [...]

Strength in the new housing market gave way to weakness last month. New single-family home sales declined 5.3% (+2.4% y/y) to 631,000 (SAAR) during June and more-than-reversed May's 3.9% increase to 666,000, revised from 689,000. It [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index slipped 0.2% last week (-13.4% y/y) following a 2.5% decline during the prior week. The effective interest rate on a 15-year mortgage was little [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level fell to 35.5 in July and backed away from its three-year high. A lessened fifty-three percent of respondents [...]