Economy in Brief: 2020

The Federal Reserve left the target for the Fed funds rate in a range of 0.00% to 0.25% at today's meeting of the FOMC. The Fed indicated that it will maintain this target range until the economy "is on track to achieve its maximum [...]

French household confidence according to the survey from INSEE slipped to 94.1 in July from 96.3 in June instead of advancing as expected. At this reading, household confidence has as queue standing in its 41.6 percentile, below its [...]

• Pending home sales are at the highest level since February 2006. • Improvement continues throughout the country. The recovery in home sales is continuing as mortgage rates decline and the job market improves. The National [...]

• Trade deficit in goods narrows to $70.64 billion. • Exports surge 13.9% while imports rise 4.8%. • Strength in exports is broad-based. The advance U.S. trade report showed the goods trade deficit narrowed to $70.64 billion in June [...]

• Mortgage applications decreased 0.8% in week ending July 24. • Purchase applications off 5.9% from early June, refinance applications down 38.4% from early March. • 15-year fixed rate mortgage increase to 2.85%, near record low of [...]

• Worries about the future emerge. • Reading of current conditions continues to increase. • All age groups become less confident. Consumer confidence weakened in July, according to the Conference Board. The Index of Consumer [...]

The CBI U.K. retail sales survey moved sharply higher to the still weak reading of +4 in July, rising from the -37 reading logged in June after an abysmal -50 reading in May. At least the CBI survey has climbed back to positive [...]

• Gasoline prices slip. • Crude oil prices rise slightly. • Natural gas prices weaken. Regular gasoline prices eased to $2.18 per gallon (-19.9% y/y) in the week ended July 27 from $2.19 in the previous week. The cost, nevertheless, [...]