Economy in Brief: January 2019

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo rose to 58 during January after falling sharply during December to 56, its lowest level since May 2015. The figure compared to the expansion [...]

Import prices fell 1.0% during December following a 1.9% November decline, revised from -1.6%. A 1.3% fall had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During all of 2018, import prices fell 0.6% from December-to- [...]

The EMU trade balance widened to 15.1 billion euros in November from 13.5 billion euros in October. The November figure is above its three-month average (13.8 billion euros) but below its 12-month average (16.6 billion euros). [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions declined to 3.9 in January, the lowest level since May 2017. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a reading of 12.0 for January. Data back through 2017 were [...]

The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index using new methodology fell 0.2% during December following a 0.1% uptick in November. A 0.1% decline had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. From December-to-December, [...]

Gasoline prices averaged a fairly steady $2.25 per gallon this past week (-12.1% y/y) but remained below the $2.90 October peak. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The seasonally- [...]

IP in context Industrial output in the EMU has just made its sharpest year-on-year drop in over five and one half years (when IP was engaged in a string of 20 straight months of year-on-year IP declines). The one-month drop of 1.7% is [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) has been weakening since late-June when the index reached its peak. During the last month alone, it's down 1.9% and over [...]