Economy in Brief: 2016

New orders for durable goods rose 4.4% during July (-3.3% y/y) following a 4.2% June decline, revised from -3.9%. A 3.3% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The rise in orders was led by a 10.5% jump [...]

All components of the IFO index except construction demonstrated a significant monthly fade in August. The all sector index fell from 9.6 to 5.6. The manufacturing sector stepped back to 6.3 from 9.7. Wholesaling saw its reading [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose a modest 0.2% in June for the third consecutive month. While the y/y change of 5.6% was fairly steady, the three month gain of 2.7% (AR) was the softest since [...]

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, [...]