Economy in Brief: May 2017

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index fell 4.1% (-17.9% y/y) in the week ended May 12, after a 2.4% increase during the prior week. Refinancing applications declined 5.7% (-36.5% [...]

Today was a big day for European data. I feature the auto sales data which surprised on the low side with a really weak performance. Auto sales and retail sales Sales for Europe as whole fell by 8.7% in April and now only rise by 0.6% [...]

Regular gasoline prices held at $2.37 per gallon last week (5.7% y/y), down from $2.45 at the end of April. Prices remained lower than the 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal [...]

Industrial production increased 1.0% (2.1% y/y) during April following a 0.4% March gain, revised from 0.5%. A 0.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Manufacturing sector output also rose 1.0% (1.7% [...]

Housing starts remain soft. During April, total starts declined 2.6% to 1.172 million units (AR) from 1.203 million in March, revised from 1.215 million. It was the lowest level of starts since November. Expectations had been for [...]

Italian inflation is accelerating. It is up at a strong pace over three months and six months after lagging the pack in this cycle. In March, Italy had the second slowest pace of core inflation over three months, six months and 12 [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo increased 2.9% to 70 during May and reversed most of the prior month's decline. The index remained 20.7% higher y/y. The NAHB figures are [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions for May fell to -1.0 from 5.2 in April, down from February's peak reading of 18.7. A reading of 6.3 was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These data, [...]