Economy in Brief: August 2016

Sales of existing homes declined 3.2% (-1.6% y/y) during July to 5.390 million units (AR) after an unrevised June rise to 5.570 million. The decline erased the increases during the prior three months. Expectations had been for 5.53 [...]

Producer prices in Finland continue to slip with a 0.3% drop in July ending a two month string of increases, the first multi-month PPI increases since having gained for three consecutive months from February to April of 2015. While [...]

Regular gasoline prices averaged $2.19 per gallon (-16.8% y/y) last week following two weeks at $2.15, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Prices were down versus a 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. Haver Analytics constructs [...]

Sales of new single-family homes increased 12.4% (31.3% y/y) to 654,000 (SAAR) during July from 582,000 in June, revised from 592,000. It was the highest level of sales since October 2007. Sales of 580,000 had been expected in the [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its August Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity at the company level remained stable. The index level of 19.5 has been little changed for six months. It remains down sharply, [...]

The EMU composite PMI for August was last stronger in March but last persistently stronger from February 2015 to January 2016. At 53.3 the PMI gauge for the EMU is in the top 67th percentile of its historic queue of data back to [...]

The National Activity Index from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago increased to 0.27 during July from 0.05 in June, revised from 0.16. It was the strongest reading in twelve months. The three-month moving average improved to -0.10, [...]

The Belgian National Bank index remains a quintessential euro area marker as its consumer index is flat in August at -4, at the same level as in July but up two ticks from its June reading and also up two ticks from its year-ago [...]