Economy in Brief: 2015

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index gained 4.6% last week (28.1% y/y) and remained at the highest level since early-February. Purchase applications led the way up with a 5.7% w/w [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report reported that nonfarm private sector payrolls increased 189,000 during March following a 214,000 improvement in February, revised from 212,000. The latest gain was the weakest since January [...]

Chicago purchasing managers reported that their March Business Barometer Index moved up to 46.3 this month following a sharp decline to an unrevised 45.8 in February. The reading roughly equaled expectations for 51.4 in the Action [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index improved to 101.3 in March (20.7% y/y) and made up half of last month's decline to 98.8, revised from 96.4. The latest figure was stronger than expectations for 96.5 in the Action [...]

Germany remains a world apart from the rest of the European Monetary Union members as its unemployment rate is less than half the average for the community. Germany's rate was steady in February as the rate fell in the EMU. In the [...]

Gasoline prices dipped a penny last week to $2.45 cents per gallon and remained down by roughly one-third versus a year ago. Prices remained well below the $3.70 per gallon peak last June. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that its March Composite index of factory sector activity deteriorated to -17.4, the third consecutive negative monthly reading. The figure reflected weakness amongst most of the component [...]

The just-released National Association for Business Economics forecast of 2.9% growth in U.S. real economic activity next year follows an expected 3.1% rise this year. Quarterly GDP growth is expected to hold fairly steady near 3.0%. [...]