Economy in Brief: 2016

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the fed funds rate was left unchanged in the range of 0.25%-0.50%, as expected. Policy was viewed as "accommodative" in the report. The commentary in today's release was much [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index fell 11.2% (+43.8% y/y) last week following a 1.3% shortfall. Purchase applications declined 3.3% (+12.2% y/y). Refinancing applications fell 15.1%, [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales rose 0.2% (1.0% y/y) during June following an unrevised 3.7% May decline. These sales are reported as an index with 2001=100. The June value of 111.0 was 3.5% [...]

While the monthly money and credit numbers show some small upticks, the broader three-month growth rates for EMU money and credit continue to disappoint and to show deceleration. There is nothing good going on for the ECB to point to. [...]

New orders for durable goods fell 4.0% during June (-6.4% y/y) following a 2.8% May decline, revised from -2.2%. A 1.0% shortfall had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. For a second straight month, weakness in the [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index of 97.3 during July stayed close to 97.4 in June, revised from 98.0. The latest figure remained nearly the highest level since October and beat expectations for a decline to 96.0 in the [...]

Housing market improvement continued during June. Sales of new single-family homes increased 3.5% (25.4% y/y) to 592,000 (SAAR) from 572,000 in May, revised from 551,000. Sales of 557,000 had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

There is no rest for the weary. Japan may be tired of weak prices, but the weakness is not letting up. In June the overall PPI was flat month-to-month, keeping the PPI lower over 12 months by 4.3% and falling at a -3.9% annualized [...]