Economy in Brief: August 2011

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes during July fell 3.5% to 4.670M (21.0% y/y) from a revised 4.840 in June. The y/y comparison is positive because of last year's decline after the ending of the [...]

The Conference Board reported that its Leading Economic Indicators index rose 0.5% in July following June's unrevised 0.3% increase. A Consensus forecast looked for a 0.2% rise. The latest three-month growth rate (annualized) picked [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's index of regional factory sector plunged this month. Today's Philadelphia Fed General Activity index dropped to -30.7 from an unrevised 3.2 in July. The figure was well short of Consensus [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims have been waffling between 375,000 and 432,000 since February. Last week, they ticked up w/w to 408,000 from an upwardly revised 399,000 during the prior period. The figure surpassed expectations [...]

Japan’s LEI is back to where it was before disaster(s) struck. Its growth rate is up boosted, still, by exports relative to imports and by the Japanese stock market, housing starts and overtime in manufacturing as Japan’s factories [...]

Price inflation accelerated last month, but its makeup was somewhat mixed. The overall CPI gained 0.5% following June's 0.2% decline. A 0.2% increase was expected. Despite the July strength, the three-month gain in prices eased to [...]

The total index of mortgage applications rose another 4.1% last week to 716.4 (March 16, 1990 = 100). Again, the gain was in applications to refinance which rose 8.0% after the prior week's near one-third jump. Applications to [...]

In the financial crisis, the number of UK jobless claimants ran up; the number then went into steady decline. But now, the number is back on the rise, and is rising rather sharply. The BOE MPCs (Spencer Dale and Martin Weale) who once [...]