Economy in Brief

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index eased in June to 15.0, the lowest level since November. The production reading dropped sharply to the [...]

The IFO ordinary indexes (see Chart) continue to climb in June. The ordinary IFO indexes (not the diffusion indexes) are at their highest marks since January 1991 for both the headline and the current index. The expectation index has [...]

New orders for durable goods declined 1.1% during May following an unrevised 0.9% April fall. Despite the decline, orders increased 2.7% y/y after falling 1.7% during all of last year. A 0.6% decrease in orders had been expected in [...]

Sales of new single-family homes increased 2.9% during May (8.9% y/y) to 610,000 from 593,000 in April, revised from 569,000. Despite the increase, sales were 5.3% below the March peak. Expectations had been for 595,000 sales in the [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its index of regional manufacturing sector business activity rose to 11 in June, following an unrevised improvement to eight in May. It remained down sharply from the March reading [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% (3.5% y/y) during May following a 0.2% April gain, revised from 0.3%. A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Three- [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose at a 9.1% annualized rate during the last three reported months, the strongest rate since May 2013. During April, the index increased 0.7% (6.9% y/y) [...]

Climate backs off in month as year-on-year gains continue their small pick up The French industrial climate gauge backtracked slightly to 108.4 in June from 108.8 in May. The rank or queue standing of the index falls into its 78th [...]