Economy in Brief: June 2012

Last month, housing starts fell 4.8% to 708,000. The figure disappointed expectations for 725,000 starts. However, the picture for home building activity may have nevertheless brightened. The April level of starts was revised up to [...]

While Greek and Egyptian election news takes center stage these days, it is important not to lose sight of the wealth of economic data released each day. Among today's releases are data on Belgium's consumer confidence and [...]

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo reported that its Composite Housing Market Index rose this month to 29 from a revised 28 in May, initially reported as 29. The latest figure was the highest since 2007. The index [...]

Growth slowdowns in EMU are choking off imports faster than exports are being slowed to outside the region. Over three months exports are weak on broad based weakness. But for imports the weakness stretches back over a year. [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-June slumped to 74.1 from 79.3 in May. The latest figure was the lowest since December and compared to expectations for 77.5. The reading of consumer expectations fell [...]

Foreign investors purchased $26.1 billion worth of U.S. long-term debt and equity securities in April, according the U.S. Treasury's International Capital ("TIC") data. This followed $21.9 billion worth in March, a similar amount in [...]

Overall industrial output fell across most categories last month. Total production slipped 0.1% after an unrevised 1.0% April increase. The decline compared to Consensus expectations for 0.1% uptick according to Action Economics. A [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for June retraced all of this year's improvement with a decline to 2.29 versus an unrevised 17.09 in May. Consensus expectations had been for improvement 14.0. Based on [...]