Economy in Brief: December 2014

Initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ended December 13 fell to 289,000 (-21.5% y/y) after falling to a little-revised 295,000 in the prior week. It was the lowest level of claims in six weeks. The four-week moving [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed indicated, "Based on its current assessment (of the economy), the Committee judges that it can be patient in beginning to normalize the stance of monetary policy." The [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index fell 3.3% last week (-3.9% y/y). Applications to purchase a home fell 6.9% (-5.3% y/y) but application to refinance were little changed (-3.0% [...]

The U.S. current account deficit deepened in Q3'14 to $100.3 billion from $98.4 billion in Q2. The deficit shrank to 2.3% of GDP from 5.8% in 2006. The Action Economics Forecast Survey called for a Q3 deficit of $95.0 billion. Exports [...]

Inflationary pressures remain well contained. The consumer price index fell 0.3% during November (+1.3% y/y) following unrevised stability during October. It was the largest monthly decline since December 2008 and outpaced [...]

The euro area's HICP inflation is up by 0.3% year over year. The core is up by 0.7% on that horizon. Inflation in the four largest EMU economics is at an annual rate of 0.4% or less; Spain's price level is falling. Core prices among [...]

Inflationary pressures remain well contained. The consumer price index fell 0.3% during November (+1.3% y/y) following unrevised stability during October. It was the largest monthly decline since December 2008 and outpaced [...]

Housing starts during November declined 1.6% to 1.028 million (AR, +7.5% y/y) from 1.045 million in October, revised from 1.009 million. The latest figure roughly matched expectations for 1.025 million starts in the Action Economics [...]