Economy in Brief: August 2012

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-August improved to 73.6 from an unrevised 72.3 in July. The latest figure beat expectations for stability at 72.5. Nevertheless, the reading remained well below those [...]

EMU inflation posted a Yr/Yr rate of 2.4% for the third month in a row. And while that is above the ECBs target/cap of 2% the core rate (ex food and energy) has been below 2% (1.9% to 1.8% on a yr/yr basis) since January of this year. [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Business Conditions Index rose to -7.1 this month after gaining to an unrevised -12.9 during July. The improvement roughly matched expectations for -5.0. Haver Analytics [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims rose to 366,000 during the week ended August 11 from 364,000 during the prior week, revised from 361,000. A slip in claims to 363,000 had been expected. The four-week moving average of claims fell [...]

New residential building activity fell slightly last month but the future looks brighter. July housing starts fell 1.1% to 746,000 (+21.5% y/y) from 754,000 in June, revised from 760,000. Expectations had been for 753,000 starts in [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo rose this month to 37 from 35 in July. The latest figure was the highest since March 2007. The index of single-family home sales rose three [...]

While one can look at the plotted path of German GDP and see it as different from France and Italy one can also look at the paths and see a lot of similarity. Topographically the series look much the same. But just before the [...]