Economy in Brief: August 2008

After June’s phantom jump in housing starts, which owed completely to a building code change in New York, they fell back in July by 11.0% to just 965,000 (S.A.A.R.). This was the lowest since 921,000 in March 1991. This month, both [...]

Producer prices continued strongly higher in July, with the total index up 1.2% after June’s outsized 1.8%, and the core up a substantial 0.7%, considerably more than June’s 0.2%. Forecasts for the total index centered around 0.6% and [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported a stable performance in its Housing Market Index (HMI) for August, albeit at the index’s all-time low of 16, first seen in July. It stood at 22 this time last year and averaged 19 for [...]

The average asking price for a house coming onto the market in the U.K. declined 4.8% in August from a year ago after a 2.0% year-to-year decline in July. These were the first two declines in the series which was first begun in 2002. [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported a stable performance in its Housing Market Index (HMI) for August, albeit at the index’s all-time low of 16, first seen in July. It stood at 22 this time last year and averaged 19 for [...]

The University of Michigan's mid-August reading of consumer sentiment ticked up 0.8% from July to 61.7. The gain followed the 8.5% increase in July and the level about matched Consensus expectations for a reading of 62.0. The latest [...]

For July, industrial production rose 0.2% after an unrevised 0.5% gain during June. Consensus expectations had been for no change in output last month. Utility output reversed its June increase and fell by 1.8% as the summer heat [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its July index of manufacturing activity in the Empire State improved to a slightly positive 2.77 after having been at -4.92 during June. It was the first positive reading since April [...]