Economy in Brief: January 2015

First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell to 307,000 during the week ended January 17 from 317,000 during the prior week, revised from 316,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims increased to 306,500, the highest [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.8% in November following a 0.4% rise during October, initially reported as 0.6%. It was the largest increase since May of last year and pulled [...]

Italian industrial orders fell unexpectedly in November even as orders from abroad rose. Italian domestic orders fell sharply by 3.9% in November, overpowering a 2.9% rise in foreign orders to drive the overall orders total lower by [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index rose another 14.2% last week (39.0% y/y) as interest rates fell sharply. Applications to refinance increased 22.3% (63.3% y/y) while home purchase [...]

Petroleum prices continue falling. Average gasoline prices declined another 7 cents in the week ended January 19 to $2.07 per gallon, the lowest level since April 2009. Prices have fallen by more than one-third during the last year [...]

Japan's sector indices were less weak than expected. Japan's LEI was revised higher, mitigating the adverse signal from its monthly drop. But on balance there is little good news here apart from the bad news not being worse. The [...]

Housing starts during all of last year totaled 1.006 million, the highest level since 2007. The 8.0% gain followed double-digit increases during the prior two years. Starts during December rose 4.4% to 1.089 million (AR, 5.3% y/y) [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo slipped to 57 in January from an upwardly revised December reading of 58, earlier reported as 57. During the last ten years, there has been [...]