Economy in Brief: April 2020

• Initial jobless claims decline to 5.245 million in the week ending April 11. • Over the last four weeks 22.4 million people have filed new claims. • Thirty-nine states had decreases, but all remain at historic amounts Initial [...]

• The housing sector is hard hit by the spread of the coronavirus. • Falling permits suggest more weakness to come. New residential home building weakened dramatically last month and likely will fall further. Housing starts declined [...]

• Record decline of 6.7% in leaders reflects widespread effects from coronavirus. • Coincident indicators signal nascent recession. • Lagging indicators confirm large downshift in economy. The Conference Board reported that its [...]

• The housing sector is hard hit by the spread of the coronavirus. • Falling permits suggest more weakness to come. New residential home building weakened dramatically last month and likely will fall further. Housing starts declined [...]

Housing starts declined 22.3% (+1.4% y/y) during March to 1.216 million units (SAAR). They fell 3.4% in February to 1.564 million, revised from 1.599 million. Total starts are 24.9% below their January peak. The latest level was the [...]

Total business inventories slipped an expected 0.1% (+1.1% y/y) during January following an unrevised 0.1% December gain. The anticipated figure is from the Informa Global Markets survey. Business sales increased 0.6% (+2.1% [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions collapsed to -78.2 in April from -21.5 in March. The April reading was the lowest on record, by far surpassing the previous low of -34.3 reached during the Great [...]

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