Economy in Brief: October 2020

• Single-family home building increases to highest level since June 2007. • Permits to build single-family units jump, while multi-family permits drop. Housing starts rose 1.9% (11.1% y/y) in September to 1.415 million units (SAAR) [...]

• Natural gas prices jump. • Crude oil prices rise for the second straight week. • Gasoline prices decline. Natural gas prices increased 13.6% (-3.6% y/y) to $2.17/mmbtu in the week ended October 16 after a 15.8% rise to $1.91/mmbtu [...]

Japan has a string of three-monthly surpluses in a row, the first such string since 2017. Both export and import trends have been declining with both flows generally falling since late-2018 or early-2019. While year-on-year trends [...]

• Housing market activity is exceptionally strong. • Number of prospective buyers improves to record level. • Monthly increases were mixed regionally. The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders- [...]

• Budget gap totals $3.132 trillion. • The deficit accounted for roughly 16% of GDP, the most since 1945. • Receipts declined while outlays surged. The U.S. Treasury Department reported that the budget deficit increased to $3.132 [...]

• Business inventory accumulation accelerates. • Sales growth eases. • Inventory-to-sales ratio falls further to six-year low. Total business inventories rose 0.3% (-5.5% y/y) during August following an unrevised 0.1% uptick in July. [...]

September marks the first year-on-year gains in car registrations for 2020. Registrations are now up by 2.9% over September of one-year ago. Sales also show growth surging strongly over six months and over three months, but the pace [...]

• Consumer spending improves broadly. Consumer spending was notably firm last month, rising for the fifth consecutive month, despite limited store openings due to COVID-19. Total retail sales, including food service & drinking [...]