Economy in Brief

New single-family home sales increased 3.5% (12.7% y/y) during August to 629,000 (SAAR) from 608,000 in July, revised from 627,000. June's sales level also was revised lower to 618,000 from 638,000. Sales during August were 11.7% [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 2.9% last week (-15.5% y/y) following a 1.6% rise. The effective interest rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage increased w/w to 4.51%, the [...]

Gasoline prices, at $2.84 per gallon last week (10.1% y/y), were unchanged from the prior week and have been roughly steady since May. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level increased to 46.8 during September, the highest reading since February 2015. A lessened 40 percent [...]

Consumer confidence during September reached the highest level since September 2000. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index strengthened 2.7% (14.8% y/y) to 138.4 from 134.7 in August, initially reported as 133.4. The [...]

France's INSEE manufacturing survey fell sharply as the headline climate index shed the better part of three points dropping to 107.0 in September from 109.7 in August. The index has fallen more sharply than this less than 20% of the [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index for house purchases increased 0.2% in July (6.4% y/y) following a 0.3% June gain, revised from 0.2%. It was the weakest increase since March. Over the last three months, the index [...]

Gasoline prices, at $2.84 per gallon last week (10.1% y/y), were unchanged from the prior week and have been roughly steady since May. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The [...]