Economy in Brief: September 2019

The Federal Reserve lowered the target for the Fed Funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 1.75% to 2.00% at today's FOMC meeting. The action was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey, which does not foresee further [...]

High inflation is one less thing that the Bank of England has to worry above as the U.K. CPIH was flat in August, dropping its year-over-year pace to 1.7%, its slowest annual gain since November 2016. The 'core' excluding food, [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index eased 0.1% (+66.2% y/y) in the week ending September 13, following a 2.0% increase during the prior week. Applications to refinance a loan declined [...]

New residential building activity strengthened last month. Housing starts jumped 12.3% (6.6% y/y) during August to 1.364 million units (AR) from 1.215 million in July, revised from 1.191 million. Starts in June were revised slightly [...]

Current assessments peaked around mid-2018, marking one of only four episodes of positive current assessments by ZEW experts since January 1999. Expectations had peaks just a bit earlier and have been falling steadily ever since. [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo rose to 68 in September from 67 during August. It was the highest level since October of last year, but it remained below the expansion high [...]

Industrial production rebounded 0.6% (0.4% y/y) during August following a 0.1% easing in July, revised from -0.2%. A 0.2% gain had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Factory sector output improved 0.5% (-0.5% y/y) [...]

After an attack on a Saudi Arabian oil facility on Sunday, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil strengthened to $62.90 per barrel yesterday from $54.85 on Friday. The outsized jump placed the price of crude oil slightly [...]