Economy in Brief

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 [...]

Retail gasoline prices inched up to $2.58 per gallon (15.2% y/y) last week......... These data are reported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The price data can be found in Haver's WEEKLY and DAILY databases. Greater detail on prices, [...]

Japan's economy watchers index is mixed in December. The current index improved slightly while the future index decayed slightly. More broadly, the current index declines over three months, over six months and 12 months. The drop in [...]