Economy in Brief

EU Commission indexes fell to 110.9 in September from 111.6 in August. Among the 18 early reporting EMU nations, 10 showed month-to-month declines in their sentiment indexes including each one of the largest four economies. ‘Big four' [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of existing homes fell again in August, dropping 1.8% after July's 0.8% decrease, revised from -0.7%. This latest move was the fourth decline in the last five [...]

Chart shows a steady expansion in activity excluding transportation Orders gain 4.5% month-to-month in August, but excluding the transportation sector new orders rise by just 0.1% with shipments up a skinny 0.2%. Turning to shipments [...]

Real gross domestic product grew at an unrevised 4.2% annual rate in Q2'18 (2.9% year-on-year) in line with the expectations of the Action Economics Forecast Survey. This is the strongest quarterly growth rate since Q3'14 when the [...]

Initial unemployment insurance applications rose to 214,000 (-17.1% y/y) during the week ended September 22 from 202,000 in the prior week, which was revised up by 1,000. A smaller increase to 206,000 was anticipated in the Action [...]

Yesterday BEA released its estimates of personal income at the state level for 2018:Q2. The numbers reflect the benchmark GDP revision. Income growth is rather dispersed. In the second quarter Texas led the nation, with a 6.0% growth [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously at today's meeting to increase the federal funds rate target 25 basis points to a range between 2.00% and 2.25%. The last time the range was set this high was in April 2008. The [...]

The U.K. distributive trades survey shows mixed performance in September within retailing and within wholesaling as well as between the two sectors. Analysis of this dual-sector two-horizon report is somewhat complicated. U.K. [...]