Economy in Brief

Personal consumption expenditures rose 0.2% during May (3.7% y/y) following no change in April, revised from the 0.1% dip reported last month. A 0.4% rise had been expected in the Action Economic Forecast Survey. When adjusted for [...]

Household confidence in France improved to 86 in June from 85 in May. However, it is still below its level of 88 in March 2014. The index level sits in the lower 16th percentile of its historic queue of data. This tells us that it has [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 1.0% last week (-44.7% y/y) and added to the prior week's 9.2% skid. Applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September 2012. [...]

New orders for durable goods declined 1.0% (+2.7% y/y) during May and reversed an unrevised 0.8% April rise. The decline contrasted with expectations for no change in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Fewer new orders for [...]

The GfK German consumer confidence indicator rose to 8.9 in July from 8.6 in June. This forward looking indicator sits in the top 3% of its historic queue. Its components that lag by one month are also quite strong. The economic [...]

Real GDP was revised to a 2.9% annual rate of decline in Q1 (+1.5% y/y) following a 1.0% drop reported last month. It was the largest decline in five years and compared to a 1.8% drop in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Consumer [...]

The Conference Board reported that their reading of consumer confidence improved 3.6% (3.8% y/y) to 85.2 this month from 82.2 in May, revised from 83.0. The latest figure was the highest since January 2008 and beat expectations for [...]

Germany's Ifo index's expectation component dropped sharply to 6.0 in June from 8.6 in May. The index has dropped sharply over the last two months. Historically, its two-month drop is greater than this only about 17% of the time. The [...]