Economy in Brief: September 2016

The EMU composite (private sector) index has fallen in September to a diffusion reading of 52.6 from 52.9 in August. It is the weakest reading since January 2015. This overall PMI gauge is now in the 52nd percentile of its queue of [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined to 252,000 (-7.0% y/y) in the week ending September 17 from an unrevised 260,000 in the prior week. The figure was near the lowest level since October 1973. The four-week moving [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators fell 0.2% during August (+1.1% y/y) following a 0.5% July gain, revised from 0.4%. It was the first decline in three months. Expectations had been for no change in [...]

Sales of existing homes fell 0.9% (+0.8% y/y) during August to 5.330 million units after 3.4% July decline to 5.380 million units, revised from 5.390 million. Expectations had been for 5.45 million sales in the Action Economics [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices increased 0.5% during July following a 0.3% June gain, revised from 0.2%. While the y/y change of 5.8% was fairly steady, the three month gain of 4.2% (AR) was [...]

Conflicting numbers and expectations stalk the U.K. outlook. In the wake of Brexit, the early `Big News' is that few economic reports seem to show much impact from the vote. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) just issued a [...]

The National Activity Index from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago declined to -0.55 during August from 0.24 in July, revised from 0.27. It was the weakest reading in three months. The three-month moving average was little changed [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the fed funds rate was left unchanged in the range of 0.25%-0.50%, as expected. The commentary in today's release was much the same as after the last meeting. Improvement in the [...]