Economy in Brief: September 2011

Given the seriousness of the financial situation and talk of recession in the Euro Area, it is not surprising that German business confidence weakened again in September. The IFO Institute measures confidence in industry and trade [...]

The sales market for new homes remained weak last month, and that greatly depressed home pricing power. Total new home sales decreased 2.3% to 295,000 after a downwardly revised 0.3% July slip. The latest was the fourth consecutive [...]

Economic momentum, one way or the other, is something the U.S. economy can't muster. The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI) was a negative 0.43 in August. That followed a marginally positive July number which was revised up [...]

Foreign and domestic orders among EMU members continue to trend upward by at an ever slower pace. That is the view from the yr/yr growth rates. Sic month growth rates (memorialized in the two-columns table shows a sharp slowing in [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Leading Economic Indicators index rose 0.3% during August following July's revised 0.6% increase, initially set at 0.5%. The gain beat the Consensus forecast for a 0.1% rise. Despite the [...]

The chart tells a pretty clear story that requires little embellishment from me. The good news is that you can see the pit that the PMIs fell into in recession and Europe is not anywhere near as deep in its drop as it was in the [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) now has risen for four consecutive months. The July increase of 0.8% followed a 0.7% June rise. The gain lessened the y/y decline to 3.2%. The greatest [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance retreated to 423,000 last week from 432,000 during the week prior (revised from 428,000). The figure roughly matched Consensus expectations for 422,000 claims, according to the Action Economics [...]