Economy in Brief: August 2017

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index ticked 0.1% higher (-22.6% y/y) in the week ended August 11 following a 3.0% rise in the prior week. Applications to refinance improved 1.6% [...]

Regular gasoline prices held w/w at $2.38 per gallon last week (10.9% y/y) and remained below the high of $2.45 per gallon in late-April. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. [...]

Total housing starts fell 4.8% to 1.155 million units (AR, -5.4% y/y) during July. That reversed most of June's rise to 1.213 million units, revised from 1.215 million. Starts of 1.220 million had been expected in the Action Economic [...]

The Brexit vote has thrown the U.K. economy into a tizzy as everyone is well aware. And while the government will have to conduct the actual exit negotiations, nowhere has dealing with Brexit and its new and yet unknown realities [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.5% in June (2.8% y/y), the strongest increase since November. Retail inventories gained 0.6% (3.3% y/y), the same strong rate as in May. Motor vehicle & parts inventories jumped 0.7% (7.4% y/y). [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions for August jumped 15.4 points from July. The latest level of 25.2 was the highest since September 2014, and continued to indicate expansion in factory sector [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo increased 6.3% to 68 during August and made up most of the prior two months' declines. Despite uneven m/m performance this year, the index [...]

After two consecutive monthly declines, import prices edged up 0.1% m/m (1.5% y/y) in July. They had fallen 0.2% m/m in June and 0.1% m/m in May. The July increase was exactly in line with the Action Economics Forecast Survey, which [...]