Economy in Brief: 2008

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dipped last week to an expected 425,000 from 435,000 during the prior week. The latest was the third decline in as many weeks. A program to locate people eligible for jobless benefits may have [...]

U.S. real GDP growth during 2Q '08 was revised sharply higher to 3.3% from the advance estimate of 1.9% growth. Last quarter's growth was the quickest since the third quarter of last year and it was faster than Consensus expectations [...]

U.S. real GDP growth during 2Q '08 was revised sharply higher to 3.3% from the advance estimate of 1.9% growth. Last quarter's growth was the quickest since the third quarter of last year and it was faster than Consensus expectations [...]

Consumer confidence rebounded in Italy to 99.5 In August from 95.8 in July. This is a nice bounce but it still leaves the index at a very low level. The best guess is that the pop in confidence stems from the drop in global oil prices [...]

For the second month in a row, new orders for durable goods jumped 1.3%. Last month's increase was led by a surge in orders for commercial aircraft, and the June gain in total orders was upwardly revised. Consensus expectations had [...]

For the second month in a row, new orders for durable goods jumped 1.3%. Last month's increase was led by a surge in orders for commercial aircraft, and the June gain in total orders was upwardly revised. Consensus expectations had [...]

The IFO's measure of business confidence declined 2.8% in August after declining 3.7% in July and 2.1% in June. The index is now 10.6% below a year ago and, at 94.8 (2000=100), the lowest level since June, 2005. The overall measure is [...]

The index of U.S. house prices from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) was roughly unchanged in June and prices were down 4.8% from a year earlier.