Economy in Brief: 2021

• Narrowing larger than expected. • Still, net exports were a meaningful drag on overall GDP growth in Q4. • Export growth picked up while import growth slowed in December. The advance estimate of the U.S. trade deficit in goods [...]

• • PREVIOUS>>>>>>>>The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Loan Applications Index fell 1.9% w/w (+56.2% y/y) in the weekend January 15............. This survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications [...]

The Federal Reserve left the target for the Fed funds rate in a range of 0.00% to 0.25% at today's meeting of the FOMC. The Fed continued to assert, "The COVID-19 pandemic is causing tremendous human and economic hardship across the [...]

The forward-looking GfK consumer confidence/climate gauge for February has stumbled for the fourth month in a row. Month-to-month the climate gauge fell by 8.1 points, its largest one-month drop since May 2020. Broad headline and [...]

• Orders increase is reduced by orders for commercial aircraft decline. • Bookings less transportation orders remain firm. • Shipments surge while inventories & order backlogs ease. Factory sector activity remains on a firm footing. [...]

• Declines in both purchase and refinancing applications. • Mortgage interest rates mostly edged down but remain off recent lows. The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Loan Applications Index fell 4.1% w/w (+39.7% y/y) in the [...]

State labor market data results in December were again mixed. The count of states with falling unemployment has been on the downtrend, with 19 seeing improvement from November to December, a noticeably smaller number than has recently [...]

Many commentators have been focusing on some of the negative longer-term effects of the coronavirus crisis on the world economy. These include higher levels of debt, higher long-term unemployment, weaker world trade growth and [...]