Economy in Brief: May 2015

The EMU PMI gauge from Markit fell to 53.4 in May from 53.9 in April, confounding expectations that Europe's recovery would take root and strengthen. Despite the weak euro exchange rate and ongoing and soon-to be-stepped up QE by the [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance increased to 274,000 during the week ended March 16 from an unrevised 264,000 in the prior week. The four week moving average eased to 266,250, a fifteen year low. The Action Economics Forecast [...]

Japan's GDP rose at a 2.4% annual rate in Q1, better than expected. Still, the GDP components are uneven. This is Japan's strongest quarterly GDP rise in one year. One year ago GDP rose by 4.9% as it was boosted by spending ahead of [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 1.5% last week (+11.2% y/y), the fifth decline in six weeks. Purchase applications fell 3.7% (11.3% y/y) while applications to refinance [...]

Gasoline prices rose 5 cents last week to an average $2.74 per gallon at the pump (-25.1% y/y), the highest level since early-December, up roughly one-third versus the late-January low of $2.04. Haver Analytics constructs factors [...]

The German ZEW index for May shows a step back in the current index and a sharp drop in expectations. The expectations reading fell by 11.4 points in May, marking it as a drop that has been larger only 13.5% of the time. The current [...]

New home construction is emerging from its winter doldrums. Housing starts during April increased 20.2% to a 1.135 million annual rate (9.2% y/y), the highest point since November 2007. The gain followed an upwardly revised rise to [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo retreated to 54 in May (+20.0% y/y) following unrevised improvement to 56 in April. The index has moved slightly lower since reaching a ten- [...]