Economy in Brief: June 2016

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo rose to 60 during June, the highest level since January. Nevertheless, it remained down from the October peak of 65. The NAHB figures are [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims rose to 277,000 (3.1% y/y) during the week ended June 11 versus an unrevised 264,000 claims in the prior week. It was the first w/w increase since the first week of May. The Action Economics [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index improved in June to 4.7 from an unrevised -1.8 in May. Despite the moderate reading, it remained up from December's low of -10.2. The [...]

The U.S. current account deficit widened to $124.7 billion in the first quarter of 2016 from a revised $113.4 billion deficit in the fourth quarter of 2015 (originally -$125.3 billion). The Q1 figure was in line with the expectation [...]

The recent increase in energy prices has been offset by a tame pricing environment elsewhere. Last month, that left the increase in the Consumer Price Index moderating to 0.2% (1.0% y/y) following an unrevised 0.4% April rise. The [...]

Mixed Grill... Today we pair a table on historic HICP EMU performance with monthly retail and auto sales in the EU. The consumer and the inflation are perhaps the two most critical variables watched by policy makers apart from job [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed funds rate was left unchanged in the range of 0.25%-0.50%, as expected. Economic growth projections were revised downward, however, from those developed for the last [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions recovered in June much of its May deterioration. The New York index rose to 6.01 following its unrevised decline to -9.02. Twenty eight percent of respondents reported a [...]