Economy in Brief

Initial claims for jobless insurance fell to 233,000 (-1.3% y/y) during the week ended April 7 from an unrevised 242,000 in the prior week. Expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey had been for 230,000 claims. The four- [...]

Import prices held steady (3.6% y/y) during March following a 0.3% February increase, revised from 0.4%. A 0.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These figures are not seasonally adjusted. Petroleum [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that the federal government ran a $208.7 billion budget deficit during March 2018. A deficit of $187.0 billion had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During the first six [...]

The Bank of France business survey stepped down to a reading of 102.7 in March from 104.6 in February. The reading is the weakest since the survey barometer logged 101.9 in January 2017, a bit more than one year ago. Since then the [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index declined 1.9% last week (-5.5% y/y), following a 3.3% fall during the prior week. Purchase loan applications were off 2.0% (+0.2% y/y), about [...]

Consumer prices eased 0.1% (+2.4% y/y) during March following a 0.2% February increase. It was the first decline in the CPI since May 2017. No change was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The CPI excluding food & [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its Small Business Optimism Index for February increased 0.7% to 107.6.............. Roughly 24 million small businesses exist in the U.S. and they create 80% of all new [...]

Retail gasoline prices slipped to $2.69 per gallon last week (+11.1% y/y) following the prior week's five cent jump. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally- [...]