Economy in Brief

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators declined 0.3% during December following a 0.1% November uptick, revised from no change. It was the fourth decline in five months. During all of 2019, the leading [...]

Japan's indexes of industry level activity show a gain in the all-industry index in November. The rise in November to 103.9 from 103.0 in October is driven mostly by a rise in the tertiary sector (services) although there is also a [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance increased 6,000 to 211,000 during the week ended January 18. Claims were unchanged y/y. The previous week's figure was revised to 205,000, from 204,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

• Activity index declines to -0.35 in December. • Three-month average at -0.23 suggests below trend growth for Q4. • Production and income indicators led the decline. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s National Activity Index [...]

It is as though the CBI conducted its survey in Q4 and in Q1 in two different countries. The R-square linking the percentile standings in Q1 2020 to Q4 2019 has a value of 0.026, indicating that one quarter can explain about 2.5 [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of existing homes during December increased 3.6% (10.8% y/y) to 5.540 million (SAAR) after falling to an unrevised 5.350 million in November. During all of 2019, existing [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index decreased 1.2% in the January 17 week after the prior week's 30.2% jump; the modest fall in the latest week still left it 51.3% above a year ago. Applications to [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index decreased 1.2% in the January 17 week after the prior week's 30.2% jump; the modest fall in the latest week still left it 51.3% above a year ago. Applications to [...]