Economy in Brief

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index declined 5.0% (+55.0% y/y) in the week ending December 13 after increasing 3.8% in the previous week. Applications to refinance a loan fell 6.5% (+135.4% y/y) [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total job openings rate rose to 4.6% during October from an unrevised 4.4% in September. It remained, nevertheless, below the 4.8% record in January. The job openings rate is the job [...]

New home building remained strong during November. Housing starts increased 3.2% (13.6% y/y) to 1.365 million (SAAR) from 1.323 million in October, revised from 1.314 million. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected 1.346 [...]

Industrial production rebounded in November, rising 1.1% m/m (-0.8% y/y) after having fallen a downwardly revised 0.9% m/m in October and 0.4% m/m in September. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had looked for a 0.8% m/m rise. [...]

Car registrations in Europe show somewhat mixed trends in November. Year-over-year sales are rising for three months in a row in this highly volatile and hard to seasonally adjust series. But the recent months' trends are much more [...]

Europe's trade trend this month but is it sustainable? Two aspects of the EMU trade trend are notable. One is that exports are accelerating. And export acceleration applies to manufactured exports and pretty-much to nonmanufacturing [...]

In the week ended December 16, retail gasoline prices edged down to $2.54 per gallon (+7.0% y/y) from $2.56 per gallon in the previous week. Typically, gasoline prices weaken at this time of year so Haver Analytics adjusts prices for [...]

Industrial production fell a more-than-expected 0.8% m/m (-1.1% y/y) in October Industrial production and capacity data are included in Haver's USECON database. Additional detail on production and capacity can be found in the IP [...]