Economy in Brief: 2016

The chart is clear. The manufacturing sector stepped up in June while services stepped back. The two sectors now have nearly the same raw PMI score, but their queue standings are wide apart. The services sector usually is expanding [...]

Strength in the housing market toned down during May. Sales of new single-family homes declined 6.0% to 551,000 (+8.7% y/y) following a 12.3% increase to 586,000, revised from 619,000. Sales of 563,000 had been expected in the Action [...]

Sales of existing homes increased 1.8% (4.5% y/y) during May to 5.530 million (SAAR) from 5.430 million in April, revised from 5.450 million. The latest level was the highest since February 2007. It surpassed expectations for 5.55 [...]

The U.S. House Price Index, from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), improved 0.2% during April following a 0.8% March Increase, revised from 0.7%. It was the weakest monthly rise since August, but left the y/y increase at a [...]

Canadian sales patterns have become confusing. While its nominal patterns look quite upbeat, real sales have slowed and are declining in the current quarter-to-date. Nominal sales are quite mixed with large blocks of sales showing [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 2.9% last week (35.8% y/y) and recouped the prior week's 2.4% decline. Applications to refinance jumped 6.5% (58.7% y/y) to the highest [...]

Despite the unexpected and relatively sharp rise in June's German expectations, the June expectations index is still higher nearly half the time (43%, approximately). Current conditions in Germany are better only 17% of the time, [...]

Regular gasoline prices declined to $2.35 per gallon last week (-16.3% y/y) and reversed the prior week's rise to $2.40, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Nevertheless, prices remained near the highest level since early [...]