Economy in Brief: May 2017

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index rose 2.4% (-15.2% y/y) in the week of May 5, after little change in the prior week. Refinancing applications rebounded 3.3% (-31.5% y/y) [...]

French and Italian IP both rose in March. In France manufacturing IP gained 2.5% and in Italy it rose by 1.2%, both solid to strong gains. In France the rise more than offsets a fall in February. In Italy the gain builds on a rise of [...]

Import prices increased 0.5% during April (4.1% y/y) following a 0.1% March uptick, revised from -0.2%. It was the strongest rise in three months. A 0.2% gain had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These figures [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level rose 0.2% (3.0% y/y) during March following a 0.3% February gain, revised from 0.4%. Durable goods inventories strengthened 0.6% (2.5% y/y) after February's 0.2% rise. Motor vehicle stocks jumped [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total job openings rate of 3.8% during March equaled February, but remained below July's peak of 4.0%. The private-sector job openings rate held steady at 4.0%, about where it's been [...]

German trade data features the headline balance which shows the surplus having diminished in March and export and import data that show a bit of an import surged juxtaposed to an export weakening. The commodity detail lags by one [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index eased to 104.5 during April from 104.7 in March. The index remained up 11.6% from the level of 93.6 April 2016. A lessened 38% of firms [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) eased 0.6% during the last four weeks, but remained up 12.7% during the last twelve months. This follows strength during [...]