Economy in Brief: April 2012

Despite lower interest rates, mortgage applications have yet to move higher. Last week the index of total mortgage applications fell 2.4% w/w to 678.8 (+52.9% y/y), down for the eighth week in the last nine. Fewer applications to [...]

Industrial production is slowing on a broad front across the Euro-Area. In February five of seven bellwether Euro-Area or EU nations had declines in their production indices over three-months; the best of their performance is flat. [...]

U.S. import prices increased 1.3% (3.4% y/y) last month after a revised 0.1% dip during February, initially pegged as +0.4%. A 0.8% March rise had been expected. Year-to-year, higher oil prices and the lower value of the dollar have [...]

The March HSBC PMI for manufacturing in China was 48.3, below the 50 mark, suggesting a slowdown in the manufacturing sector. At the same time, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing reported their manufacturing PMI for [...]

Finally, some relief. Pump prices for regular gasoline held steady last week at $3.94 per gallon but still were their highest since last May. The current level is up seventy cents (22%) since year-end. Haver Analytics' seasonally- [...]

Labor market improvement continued as indicated by the February job openings rate. For February, it held at a 2.6% for the third consecutive month which was the recovery's high. January was revised up from 2.5%. The figures are in the [...]

Small business optimism deteriorated last month. The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Optimism Index fell to 92.5 in March from an unrevised 94.3 February. The latest was the lowest since November. [...]

Reported late Friday, consumer credit outstanding increased $8.7B (4.3% y/y) during February after an $18.6B January rise, revised from $17.8B. A $12.0B increase had been expected by Action Economics. It raised credit usage by 4.3% [...]