Economy in Brief: 2016

Earlier vibrancy registered in the housing market was dimmed by last month's decline in housing starts. Starts fell 18.7% during November (-6.9% y/y) to an annual rate of 1.090 million units. That reversed most of October's 27.4% jump [...]

The U.S. current account deficit eased to $113.0 during the third quarter from $118.3 in Q2, revised from -$119.9 billion. The Q3 deficit figure compared to $111.6 billion expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The deficit [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index jumped to 21.5 during December from November's 7.6. It was the highest level since November 2014. The reading for all of 2016 [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo surged to 70 during December (16.7% y/y) following unrevised stability at 63 in November. It was the highest level since July 2005. The NAHB [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions for December continued to improve, rising to 9.0 (up from 1.5 in November), which was its highest reading since April. According to the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 254,000 (-7.6% y/y) in the week ended December 10 following an unrevised decline to 258,000 in the prior week. Expectations had been for 255,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Divergence strikes the Euro-Areas sector indices. While the EMU PMI headline is unchanged at an 11-month high the means to stay up is propped on some substantial divergence. The EMU-wide manufacturing index is on its highest level [...]

The consumer price index increased 0.2% (1.7% y/y) during November following an unrevised 0.4% October rise. The gain matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Prices excluding food & energy gained 0.2% (2.1% y/y) [...]