Economy in Brief: July 2015

Sales of existing homes increased 3.2% last month to an annualized 5.490 million (9.6% y/y) from 5.320 in May, revised from 5.350 million. Sales were at the highest level since February 2007 and stronger than consensus expectations [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.4% during May (5.7% y/y) following a 0.4% April gain, revised up from 0.3%. While prices reached the highest level since August 2007, the three- [...]

French business climate in the Insee survey for July rose by two points to stand at an index value of 102, up from 100 (its average) in June. This two-point rise in climate is a gain only exceeded about 14% of the time, marking it as [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index improved 0.1% last week (8.3% y/y). Purchase applications gained 1.0% (17.9% y/y) while applications to refinance eased 0.5% (+0.2% y/y). The [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity fell sharply to 8.1 this month from an unrevised 54.1 in June. These figures are not seasonally adjusted. Since inception in 2011, July [...]

Finland's economy has been depressed for the last four years. It is still struggling to shrug off the loss of a lot of logging-related business to other nations and the departure Nokia and related technology businesses. While the EMU [...]

Gasoline prices eased last week to an average $2.80 per gallon at the pump (-22.0% y/y) but remained higher than the low of $2.04 late in January. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in pump prices. [...]

The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) deteriorated during the last month. Factory sector production so far this year, both total and industrial supplies, has [...]