Economy in Brief: 2015

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that business activity improved during July. The Composite index of 10th District factory sector activity rose to -7, up from May's low of -13. The Fed indicated that higher shipments [...]

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators from the Conference Board increased 0.6% during June following a 0.8% rise during May, revised from 0.7%. A 0.2% improvement had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) during June registered its first positive reading since December. The latest figure increased to 0.08 from -0.08 in May, revised from -0.17. The three-month [...]

The rate of labor market improvement may have accelerated. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 255,000 (-8.4% y/y) during the week ended July 18 from an unrevised 281,000 during the prior week. The latest figure was the [...]

Japan's trade trends show little alteration over the last few months. Over that period, exports have grown year-over-year in a range from 5.5% to 8.4% while imports have declined by 3.9% to 5.8%. The trade gap has fluctuated between [...]

Sales of existing homes increased 3.2% last month to an annualized 5.490 million (9.6% y/y) from 5.320 in May, revised from 5.350 million. Sales were at the highest level since February 2007 and stronger than consensus expectations [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.4% during May (5.7% y/y) following a 0.4% April gain, revised up from 0.3%. While prices reached the highest level since August 2007, the three- [...]

French business climate in the Insee survey for July rose by two points to stand at an index value of 102, up from 100 (its average) in June. This two-point rise in climate is a gain only exceeded about 14% of the time, marking it as [...]