Economy in Brief

• • PREVIOUS >>> The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey for April that the Current General Business Activity Index weakened to a record low of -73.7 from -70.0 in March............ Each [...]

The look-ahead view for German confidence in June from GfK shows some improvement for the headline gauge and also improvement for the component measures that lag by one month. GfK climate The GfK climate gauge fell very sharply in [...]

• Expectations for business conditions improve moderately. • Assessment of current activity weakens further. • Age groups exhibit mixed feelings. The Conference Board's Index of Consumer Confidence rose 1.1% (-34.0% y/y) this month to [...]

• Texas Manufacturing Outlook survey rose to -49.2% balance in May from record low -74.0% in April. • Expectations and all of the business indicators improved. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey [...]

• New single-family edged up 0.6% m/m in April to 623,000, counter to expectations, with downward revisions to February and March. • Though down meaningfully so far this year, sales are still well above late-2018 lows. • Mortgage [...]

• Weakening is broad-based around the country. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index edged 0.1% higher during March following a 0.8% February gain, revised from 0.7%. The y/y gain nevertheless remained steady at 5.9%. [...]

• Effects of COVID-19 outbreak increasingly restrains economy. • Contraction in activity is broad-based. The National Activity Index (CFNAI) weakened to -16.74 during April from -4.97 in March, revised from -4.19. It was a record [...]

• Oil prices rise as lockdown eases. • Metals prices improve. • Plywood prices surge. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) jumped 9.4% during the four weeks [...]