Economy in Brief: July 2010

Lower interest rates continued to spur mortgage applications last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Overall, mortgage applications jumped another 7.6% last week. That raised applications 15.2% from June and 42.5% [...]

The consumer continues ready to spend. Chain store sales thus rose 1.4% last week and recovered virtually all of the prior week's decline. As a result, July sales so far in the month are 1.6% above June's average after that month's [...]

Off to the races - The German PPI excluding energy continues to show an escalating pace of inflation for each horizon and the patterns shows that acceleration is still the order of the day. Prices are advancing faster over three [...]

The pump price for regular gasoline held steady last week at $2.72 per gallon, about where it's been since late-May. That price is down, however, after an upturn through early-May to $2.90. Pulled higher by firm demand, prices have [...]

Again, with the elimination of the government's program to stimulate housing, the sector's activity fell. June housing starts dropped another 5.0% m/m to 549,000 (AR) after a 14.9% May drop that was deeper than reported initially. The [...]

It had been a weak housing market recovery anyway, but the National Association of Home Builders reported that their index of housing market activity fell back this month to 14, the lowest level since March 2009. Perhaps this is the [...]

The EMU current account deficit widened in May and is fluctuating in a higher deficit zone. Both merchandise exports and imports are accelerating but goods imports are outpacing goods exports in the Zone on all horizons. Services [...]

In their latest report, the Nat'l Association for Business Economics indicated that net industry demand increased during 2Q for the fourth consecutive quarter. There was a sign, however, of moderation in the rate of demand's expansion [...]