Economy in Brief

Total orders in Germany rose by 3.4% in February, rebounding from a 6.8% drop that followed a monthly rise of 6.1%. Over the past five months, German orders have been chopping up and down month-to-month as orders oscillated between [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 234,000 (-13.7% y/y) during the week ended April 1 from 259,000 during the prior week, revised from 258,000. It was the lowest level of claims in five weeks. Expectations had been for [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index fell 1.6% last week (-16.0% y/y) following a 0.8% decline during the week prior. Refinancing applications declined 4.2% (-33.3% y/y) following a [...]

The strength in survey data or 'soft-data economic reports' continues in March as the finalized EMU PMI shows a headline, manufacturing reading and a service sector reading that all are on five-year-plus highs (all of these gauges are [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 4.2% (43.0% y/y) last week following a 0.9% rise. Purchase applications surged 8.6% (20.9% y/y) and made up declines during July and [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell sharply to 55.2 in March from an unrevised 57.6 during February. It was the lowest level since October. The Action Economics [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that private nonfarm payroll employment rose 263,000 (1.9% y/y) during March, the strongest increase since December 2014. The rise followed a 245,000 February gain, revised from [...]

Regular gasoline prices improved to $2.36 per gallon last week (13.3% y/y), up versus three weeks of stability at $3.32 per gallon. Prices remained lower than the 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. Haver Analytics constructs factors [...]