Economy in Brief: April 2014

Auto registrations in Europe have risen again on a year-over-year basis, posting an increase of 1.6% over 12 months. This, however, is down from a 6.8% year-over-year gain in February and is the smallest gain since October 2013. [...]

The labor market's recovery remained in evidence last week as initial unemployment insurance claims totaled 304,000, up slightly from 302,000 during the week ended April 5, revised from 300,000. Expectations had been for 315,000 [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index jumped 4.3% last week (-57.7% y/y) to the highest level in four weeks. Applications nevertheless remained two-thirds below the peak in September [...]

Industrial output in the U.S. increased 0.7% last month (3.7% y/y) following a 1.2% jump during February, initially reported as 0.6%. A 0.5% gain in total production was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Production in [...]

Housing starts in March gained 2.8% to 946,000 units (AR) from 920,000 in February, revised up from 907,000. The latest figure fell short of expectations for 970,000 starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Starts of single- [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased to $3.65 last week, up 3.1% y/y. Prices remained below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to account for [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo edged up one point this month to 47. The index now stands 6.8% above March of 2013. The latest reading disappointed consensus expectations [...]

Germany's ZEW index for current conditions moved up to 59.5 in April from 51.3 in March. The rise in the current index is at the point where it's only higher, historically, 10.7% of the time. This is an extremely strong reading [...]