Economy in Brief: October 2019

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of existing homes fell 2.2% (+3.9% y/y) during September to 5.380 million from 5.50 million in August, revised from 5.490 million. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level fell to 8.7 during October after declining to 29.4 in September. Nevertheless, the index of expected [...]

In the week ended October 21, the U.S. pump price for gasoline of $2.64 per gallon (-7.1% y/y) compared to $2.63 during the previous week. Haver Analytics adjusts these price figures for seasonal variation. The seasonally-adjusted [...]

Japan's trade data showed a gain in both exports and imports in September, but both flows are contracting year-over-year. However, there is a lot of price weakness because of weak energy prices and in real terms year-on-year exports [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) declined 0.7% during the last four weeks. An uptick last week was part of an irregular sideways path in place since [...]

The EMU current account expanded to 26.6 billion euros in August from 21.6 billion euros in July. The trade surplus expanded, the balance on manufacturing trade moved to a larger surplus and the balance on nonmanufacturing trade also [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators eased 0.1% (+0.4% y/y) during September following a 0.2% August decline, revised from no change. A 0.1% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Building activity retraced some of last month’s strength. Housing starts fell a greater-than-expected 9.4% in September (+1.6% year-on-year) to 1.256 million-unit annual rate, from an upwardly-revised 1.386 million in August. The [...]