Economy in Brief: 2012

The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index ticked up 0.1% during March following an unrevised 0.2% February rise. The latest figure eased the year-to-year change to -2.6%, an improvement versus last year's 3.9% rate [...]

Germany’s economic climate held steady in June despite troubles in the surrounding Euro-Area and a controversial change of leadership in France. Despite these distractions and risks German consumers continue to see mild inflation and [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for rose further in its Final May reading to 79.3 (Q1 1966 = 100) from 77.8 in mid-month and 76.4 in April. This put it at the highest level since October 2007, before the [...]

The EMU unravel is now in its second phase. The chart clearly shows the first phase drop for MFG from 58.6 to 46.38 followed by a bounce to 48.96 and now a drop to flash value of 45.03. The chart shows that the services sector has [...]

New orders for durable goods edged up 0.2% in April after a revised decrease of 3.7% in March (originally reported at 4.2%).

Initial unemployment insurance claims totaled 370,000 in the week of May 19; those in the week of May 12 were revised up 2,000 to 372,000. Consensus expectations for the later period were for 367,000 filings. The four-week moving [...]

New home sales recovered 3.3% in April to 343,000. This gain partially reversed March's 7.3% fall, revised from 7.1% reported originally, and put April up 9.9% from a year ago. The April volume exceeded the consensus expectations for [...]

It's a close to official as it can get. The Italian consumer is really fed up. While Italy is still one of the countries with one of the richer citizenries in Europe its technocrat government and the situation in Europe has driven the [...]