Economy in Brief: 2019

Initial unemployment insurance claims fell to 209,000 (-2.1% y/y) during the week ended August 17 from the prior week's 221,000, revised from 220,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a lesser decline to 218,000 initial [...]

Spain's trade deficit on goods transactions fell into a smaller deficit in June at -0.9 billion euros compared to -3.1 billion euros in June. Exports have had a pick-up in recent months while imports have languished and advanced at a [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes increased 2.5% during July to 5.420 million (0.6% y/y) from 5.290 million in June, revised from 5.270 million. Sales were 9.9% higher than the recent low [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index slipped 0.9% (+73.1% y/y) during the week ending August 16 following a 21.7% surge during the prior week. Applications to refinance a loan improved [...]

U.K. industrial orders, output and pricing show less weakness than the one-month lagged EU Commission metric or the Markit manufacturing metric. But ranked over a shorter span, since 2015, the U.K. data appear extremely weak and they [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level rose to 32.5 in August from 24.6 in July. It was the highest reading since April. Deteriorating, [...]

The U.S. pump price for gasoline eased to $2.60 per gallon (-7.9% y/y) last week from the prior week's $2.62 per gallon. Prices have fallen for five consecutive weeks. Haver Analytics calculates a series which is adjusted for the [...]

Declines in factory sector production continue to put downward pressure on prices. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) declined 3.2% during the last four [...]