Economy in Brief: 2019

New home sales declined 6.9% (+7.0% y/y) during April to 673,000 (SAAR) from 723,000 in March, revised from 692,000. Despite the decline, sales were 20.8% higher than the recent low in October. Sales of 671,000 had been expected in [...]

The labor market remains on a firm footing. Initial claims for unemployment insurance eased 1,000 to 211,000 (-7.6% y/y) during the week ended May 18 from an unrevised 212,000 in the previous week. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index gained 2.4% (15.4% y/y) during the week ending May 17. The rise was driven by an 8.3% jump (31.1% y/y) in applications to refinance an existing loan, [...]

The Bank of England makes monetary policy off the CPIH, which is the CPI measure inclusive of a measure of housing costs. This measure puts the U.K. on the same footing as the U.S. with its inflation measures and is unlike the EMU [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index gained 2.4% (15.4% y/y) during the week ending May 17. The rise was driven by an 8.3% jump (31.1% y/y) in applications to refinance an existing loan, [...]

The CBI orders fell sharply in May and were last weaker in October 2016. That observation is an outlier. But from October 2015 through April 2016, orders were persistently weaker than their current reading. Export orders fell more [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level fell to 28.1 during May after rising slightly in April. These figures remain below the high of 45.7 [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes during April eased 0.4% (-4.4% y/y) to 5.190 million units (SAAR) after an unrevised March decline to 5.210 million. It was the lowest level of sales in three [...]