Economy in Brief: September 2004

Home prices as tallied by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) rose 2.2% (9.1% AR) in 2Q 2004 versus an upwardly revised 1Q gain of 1.5%. The OFHEO house price index is a geometric weighted average based on more [...]

Chain store sales again ticked slightly higher last week, up 0.2% w/w according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS. So far in September sales are 0.1% below the August average which was unchanged from July. [...]

The Small Business Optimism Index published by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) fell 2.8% in August. The decline reversed all of the improvement in July and dropped the index to the lowest level since March. The [...]

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey continued to indicate improved hiring intentions in the US for 4Q04. A seasonally adjusted net 20% of 16,000 employers expect to increase hiring activity and that held the improved level of the [...]

Retail sales fell 0.3% last month, about as expected, following a 0.8% gain in July that was little revised. Excluding motor vehicles & parts dealers sales rose 0.2% after a little revised 0.3% gain in July. Consensus expectations had [...]

Retail sales fell 0.3% last month, about as expected, following a 0.8% gain in July that was little revised. Excluding motor vehicles & parts dealers sales rose 0.2% after a little revised 0.3% gain in July. Consensus expectations had [...]

Inflation in China is beginning to focus attention once more on its foreign exchange peg. The Chinese Yuan has remained close of 8.3 Yuan to the US dollar since the devaluation of January 1994. Consumer prices in August were 5.3% [...]

The Index of Leading Indicators for the Major Seven OECD Countries fell slightly in July and continued the lackluster performance of the last five months. Since February the leading index is about unchanged and the index's six-month [...]