Economy in Brief: 2020

• Initial jobless claims edged down to a still extremely-elevated 1.508 million in the week ending June 13. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers rise to 760.526. • Continuing claim for state programs ticked down to [...]

The Bank of England Agents’ Survey is an aid to the BOE for policymaking. The survey is a series of judgmental responses that are scored on a scale from +5 to -5. A simple weighting of the responses shows this to be the weakest survey [...]

• Broad-based component gains lift the leading index. • Coincident indicators rebound moderately. • Lagging indicators indicate less economic stress. The Conference Board reported that its Composite Index of Leading Economic [...]

• Business conditions index is positive for first time since February. • Component gains are broad-based. • Expectations improve sharply. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its General Factory Sector Business [...]

The Bank of England’s (BoE) decision to expand its quantitative easing programme today by Ł100bln was not a big surprise for financial market participants. The incoming dataflow in recent days has offered an unambiguously bleak [...]

• Initial jobless claims edged down to a still extremely-elevated 1.508 million in the week ending June 13. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers rise to 760,526. • Continuing claims for state programs ticked down to [...]

Japan was once an international trade juggernaut. It was unstoppable. Its exports flooded worldwide markets and Japan's trade surpluses were large and enduring. But that was then. Japan is still a very important global trader and [...]

• Loan applications for purchase surge. • Refinancing strength continues. • 15-year fixed rate mortgage declines to seven-year low of 2.87%. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose [...]