Economy in Brief: 2015

The Census Bureau has begun to publish an advance report on U.S. international trade in goods. The BEA will incorporate these data into its estimates of exports and imports for the advance GDP estimates. This is expected to reduce the [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 267,000 (-10.6% y/y) during the week ended July 25 from an unrevised 255,000 during the prior week. The latest figure was just above the lowest since November 1973. The four-week [...]

The Commerce Department estimated that overall economic growth accelerated to 2.3% last quarter (SAAR) versus a 0.6% Q1 increase, revised from -0.2%. It was the quickest rate of growth since Q3 2014 but it missed expectations for a [...]

The overall index for the EU moved to 106.6 in July from 105.5 in June to notch a 69.5 percentile standing for the EU countries. The EMU gauge rose by 0.5% to stand at 104 in July, posting a queue standing at its 60.5 percentile. The [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed indicated that growth in consumer spending is moderate and the housing sector shows signs of improvement. Together with soft business investment and net exports, the [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes declined 1.8% during June (+11.1% y/y) following a little revised 0.6% May rise. Expectations were for a 0.9% increase according to [...]

The GfK consumer confidence climate measure was dead flat in August at a level of 10.1. It peaked at 10.2 in this cycle in June and registered 10.0 in April. It has been nearly flat since April with only minor variations. While the [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index notched 0.8% higher last week (11.4% y/y) and remained near the level of late-May