Economy in Brief: September 2019

There are two layers to the distributive trade retail and wholesale survey. The first is the report on both sectors for September; the second is the report for expectations in October. The September results for retail sales volumes: [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index declined 10.1% (+45.3% y/y) in the week ending September 20, following a 0.1% dip during the prior week. Applications to refinance a loan declined 15.2% (+103.6% [...]

State personal income growth in the second quarter of 2019 was brisk, following even stronger growth in the first quarter (this release contains revisions consistent with the mid-summer revision of GDP). The regional pattern of growth [...]

The German IFO gauge is weak and remains weak after a slight improvement logged in September. The current business situation reading improved to 24.5 in September from 21.9 in August and expectations overall ‘improved’ to -2.0 from [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index declined 6.8% (-7.5% y/y) during September to 125.1 from a downwardly revised 134.2 in August. A rise to 133.0 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During the last [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level fell to 29.4 in September after rising to 32.5 in August. Improving, however, was the index of [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index increased 0.4% in July, following a slightly upwardly revised 0.2% increase in June (was 0.1%). Over the last year, home prices are up 5.0%, after growing 4.9% year-on-year in [...]

The surge in crude oil prices after last week's attack on Saudi Arabian oil fields has given way more or less to stability. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell to levels close to $58.00 per barrel this week after [...]