Economy in Brief: 2020

• State initial jobless claims decreased to a still extremely-elevated 1.480 million in the week ending June 20. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers at 728,120. • Continuing claims for state programs declined to 19.5 [...]

• Prices declined or were unchanged in several areas. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index improved 0.2% during April following a 0.1% uptick in March. The y/y gain eased slightly to 5.5%. Over the past three months, [...]

The graphics tell the story clearly enough. French industry and services indexes plunged and have since seen a substantial rebound. But even a substantial rebound leaves the levels of the indexes shy of where they had been – and by a [...]

The graphics tell the story clearly enough. French industry and services indexes plunged and have since seen a substantial rebound. But even a substantial rebound leaves the levels of the indexes shy of where they had been – and by a [...]

• Loan applications for purchase ease. • Refinancing declines. • 15-year fixed-rate mortgage remains near seven-year low. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index backpedaled by 8.7% (+48.0% [...]

The Federal Reserve has a debt problem. It's not their debt. It's the record debt of the private and public sector that the Federal Reserve has helped fuel and sponsor during the pandemic crisis. Directly and indirectly, the Fed is [...]

The global recovery is gaining momentum just about everywhere – at least among these G-7 members, as the table below demonstrates. The lone exception is Japan where manufacturing actually worsened on the month. Everywhere else [...]

• New single-family home sales rose last month following three consecutive months of decline. • Sales improved in most parts of the country. • Prices increase modestly m/m. Sales of new single-family homes increased 16.6% during May [...]