Economy in Brief: April 2018

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index increased 4.9% last week (1.0% y/y), following a 1.9% decline during the prior week. Purchase loan applications increased 6.1% (10.1% y/y) [...]

Retail gasoline prices rebounded to $2.75 per gallon last week (12.8% y/y) following the prior week's one penny drop to $2.69. It was the highest price level since late-July 2015. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the [...]

Current conditions indexes in the ZEW framework usually do not change by much month-to-month. That was the case this month as well. But there was substantial degradation in expectations. Fears surrounding the possibility of a trade [...]

The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production increased 0.5% (4.3% y/y) during March following a 1.0% February rise, revised from 1.1%. A 0.4% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Factory sector [...]

Total housing starts in March increased 1.9% to 1.319 million units (SAAR) following February's 3.3% decline to 1.295 million, revised from 1.236 million. A level of 1.260 million starts had been expected in the Action Economic [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions declined to 15.8 during April after jumping to 22.5 in March. Expectations had been for 18.6 in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These data, reported by the [...]

The series for French retail sales is volatile and hard to pin down. Nonetheless, consumer spending is having an upswing with three-month sales volume up at a 15% annual rate. Over three months, all retail components are rising. Five [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.6% (4.0% year-on-year) during February, the third consecutive monthly gain of this magnitude. Total business sales rose 0.4% (+5.8% y/y), following a 0.3% decline in January. The inventory-to- [...]