Economy in Brief

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales jumped 4.6% in January (-2.3% year-on-year) in after six consecutive monthly declines. The December reading for the index was revised slightly lower to 98.7, [...]

Manufacturers' orders edged up 0.1% (2.4% year-on-year) in December following a slightly upwardly-revised 0.5% decline in November (this report was delayed as a result of the government shutdown). The Action Economics Forecast survey [...]

The EU indices eroded again this month with the EMU aggregate index edging lower to 106.1 in February from 106.3 in January. The overall EMU sentiment gauge sits at the 72nd percentile of its historic queue of data. As for the sector [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 5.3% w/w (0.5% y/y) during the week ended February 22 after having risen 3.6% w/w in the previous week. The increases of the past two weeks [...]

This morning BEA released the first estimates of GDP by state for 2018:Q3. These figures tend to be released with a fairly substantial lag; the government shutdown delayed them by only about 3 weeks. Washington is estimated to have [...]

Retail gasoline prices edged up to $2.39 per gallon last week (-6.2% year-on-year). Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally-adjusted price rose to $2.57 per [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index for house purchases rose 0.3% m/m (5.6% y/y) in December following an unrevised 0.4% m/m (5.8% y/y) increase in November. The slowdown in the y/y rate to 5.6% was a continuation of [...]

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index jumped a great-than-expected 8.0% to 131.4 in February (1.1% year-on-year) reversing January's decline. Still, confidence has fallen 6.5 points from the cycle high touched in October [...]