Economy in Brief

Initial unemployment insurance claims during the week ended June 24 increased to 244,000 (-8.6% y/y) from 242,000 in the prior week, revised from 241,000. Expectations called for 240,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

Economic growth was revised to 1.4% during Q1'17, up from 1.2% estimated last month and 0.7% estimated initially. Growth remained the weakest in three quarters. A 1.2% advance had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index declined 6.2% (-17.9% y/y) in the week ended June 23, after a 0.6% rise. It was the lowest level of applications in four weeks. Purchase [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales fell 0.8% during May to an index level of 108.5 following a 1.7% April fall, revised from -1.3%. The index is reported on a 2001=100 basis. Pending sales [...]

The year-on-year growth rates of money and credit in the EMU (loans to the private sector) show a leveling off of money growth at the 4.5% to 5% mark with recent growth perhaps creeping up at a pace of 1 to 1.5%. Mario Draghi has [...]

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose 1.1% during June (22.1% y/y) to 118.9, following a little-revised 1.5% decline during May to 117.6. The index was 4.8% below its March peak, which was its highest level since [...]

Regular gasoline prices fell to $2.29 per gallon last week (-1.8% y/y), the lowest level since early-February. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally adjusted [...]

Italian consumer and business confidence rose in June. Business confidence reverses the decline of last month but still leaves the June reading below the level of April, but just ahead of March. Consumer confidence for June also rose [...]