Economy in Brief: February 2016

The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell last week to an average $1.72 (-24.2% y/y), down from $1.76 in the prior week, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The price compares to a 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. [...]

Japanese machinery orders rose in December by 3.6% for total orders and advanced by 4.2% for core orders, the latter gauge a treatment that excludes bulky capital projects. However, these gains follow huge drops in November that [...]

Overall industrial production jumped 0.9% during January (-0.7% y/y) following declines in the prior three months. It was the largest increase since November 2014. A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

Housing starts during January declined 3.8% (+1.8% y/y) to 1.099 million (AR) from 1.143 million, revised from 1.149 million. The shortfall followed a 2.8% drop in December. The latest figure disappointed expectations for 1.17 million [...]

The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index edged up 0.1% m/m (-0.2% y/y) in January. While this was a modest increase, it was 0.3%-pt above the Action Economics Forecast Survey expectation for a 0.2% m/m decline (this is a [...]

The ZEW index was in denial last month but the German IFO sector report showed some clear-cut weakness. This month the ZEW is giving way with a drop in the current index to 52.3 from 59.7 last month. Expectations have plunged all the [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo declined 4.9% to 58, the lowest level in nine months. January's level of 61 was revised up slightly. The NAHB figures are seasonally [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions continues to indicate declines in manufacturing sector activity. The New York index nudged up to -16.64 during February, but remained near the lowest level since April [...]