Economy in Brief

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index declined to 9.4 during December from 12.9 in November. The Action Economics Forecast Survey median estimate was 15.7. During all of [...]

Initial unemployment insurance applications increased to 214,000 (-12.4% y/y) during the week ended December 15 from an unrevised 206,000 during the prior week. Initial claims remained near the lowest level since 1969. The Action [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously at today's meeting to increase the federal funds rate target by 25 basis points to a range between 2.25% and 2.50%. It was the ninth increase since December 2015. The action was [...]

Japan's trade trends continue to sour with a widening deficit, weakening exports and strong imports. Year-on-year goods exports are only technically rising with a ‘gain' of 0.2% over 12 months, hardly more than zero. Imports of goods, [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes in November rose 1.9% to 5.320 million units (SAAR). The 7.0% y/y decline was, however, the largest since May 2011. The latest increase followed an unrevised [...]

The U.S. current account deficit widened to $124.8 billion during Q3'18 from $101.2 billion in Q2. It was the largest quarterly deficit since Q4'08 and compared to $123.4 billion expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. As a [...]

The widely watched German IFO gauge weakened noticeably in December. Most IFO readings deteriorated. The exceptions are easier to denote than listing the ones that obeyed the rule. Construction overall and current conditions were flat [...]

Gasoline prices fell to an average $2.37 per gallon (-3.3% y/y) from $2.42 last week. Prices have fallen from an average high of $2.90 early last month to currently the lowest level since August 2017. Haver Analytics constructs [...]