Economy in Brief

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) declined 3.7% last month. It has fallen for five straight weeks. Despite the declines, the index has risen by 6.5% y/y. [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.5% (5.8% y/y) during June following stability in May, revised from 0.2%. A 0.4% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. It was [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 207,000 during the week ended July 14, down 8,000 from the 215,000 of the prior week; that was revised up by 1,000. The latest week marked the smallest number of initial claims [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rebounded to 25.7 during July and recovered a piece of its June decline to 19.9. The gain surpassed expectations for a reading of 21.0 [...]

Japan's early June trade results show a goods trade position having swung back to surplus in June from deficit in May. Japan's trade position has been alternating between surplus and deficit for several months after a seven-month run [...]

The German trade account surplus widened in May after narrowing in April. At a level of 20.3 billion euros in May, it is above its 12-month average which lies at 20.0 billion euros and quite close to its previous 12-month ago 12-month [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index declined 2.5% last week (-12.8% y/y) following a 2.5% gain during the prior week. The effective interest rate on a 15-year mortgage was little [...]

Total housing starts declined 12.3% (-4.2% y/y) during June to 1.173 million (AR) from 1.337 million in May, revised from 1.350 million. It was the lowest level of starts in nine months. A rise to 1.320 million starts had been [...]