Economy in Brief

• Import prices rose 0.3% in December as fuel prices jumped 2.8%. Excluding fuels, import prices were unchanged. • Export prices declined 0.2%. Rounding at lower levels of the aggregation of the price index accounted for a larger [...]

Total retail sales including food service establishments increased 0.3% (5.8% y/y) during December following a 0.3% November gain, revised from 0.2%. The increase matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Retail [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased 10,000 to 204,000 (-6.0% y/y) in the week ended January 11 from 214,000 in the prior week, which was unrevised. It was the fifth straight weekly decline. The Action Economics [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index jumped 30.2% w/w (49.0% y/y) in the week ending January 10 on top of a 13.5% w/w rise in the previous week. Applications to refinance a loan surged 42.7% w/w [...]

EMU area IP remains weak EMU area output gained just 0.2% in November after a 0.9% decline in October. Total output has negative growth rates over 12 months, six months and three months. The rate of decay of IP is not progressing, but [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions rose slightly to 4.8 in January from 3.3 in December. The index has been fairly steady since June. A reading of 3.3 had been expected by the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.1% during December (1.3% y/y) after having been unchanged in November. A 0.2% gain had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Producer prices excluding food & energy [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index jumped 30.2% w/w (49.0% y/y) in the week ending January 10 on top of a 13.5% w/w rise in the previous week. Applications to refinance a loan surged 42.7% w/w [...]