Economy in Brief: May 2016

The housing market improved significantly as the spring selling season unfolded. Sales of new single-family homes during April jumped 16.6% to 619,000 (AR) from 531,000 in March, revised from 511,000. Sales in February and January [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity at the company level was fairly steady in May, for a second month, at 18.2 versus 17.8 in April. The measure has been declining, [...]

The overall U.S. unemployment rate has averaged 5.0% since Q4 of last year, half its late-2009 peak. For all of 2015, the 5.3% jobless rate was down roughly two percentage points from 2014. Despite the overall decline great variation [...]

Conditions and patterns vary across EMU-somewhat by size The EMU region seems to be a story of `rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.' Both France and Germany have seen their composite PMI gauges rise in May. They are the two [...]

The German PPI (ex-construction) fell by 0.2% in April, returning to its declining ways after a flat performance in March. PPI declines are still in force even as oil prices are rising strongly. Brent rose by 18% in March and by an [...]

Sales of existing homes increased 1.7% (6.0% y/y) to 5.450 million (SAAR) during April from 5.360 million in March, revised from 5.330 million. Sales have been notably volatile m/m during the past year, but the latest reading was just [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index eased during May to -1.8 from an unrevised -1.6 in April. The decline compared to expectations for 3.0 in the Action Economics [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.6% during April (1.9% y/y), following an unrevised 0.2% March gain. It was the largest increase since June, and beat expectations for a 0.3% rise in the [...]