Economy in Brief

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 2.0% (-16.6% y/y) during the week ended November 30 following a 5.5% rise during the prior week. Applications to refinance a mortgage [...]

Gasoline prices fell to an average $2.45 per gallon (-2.0% y/y) from $2.54 during last week. Prices have fallen from an average high of $2.90 early last month, to the lowest level since December 2017. Haver Analytics constructs [...]

Sales of light vehicles eased 0.2% (-0.8% y/y) during November to 17.49 million units (SAAR), but remained near the highest level in twelve months. Passenger car sales declined 4.8% (-14.5% y/y) last month to 5.37 million units and [...]

The value of construction put-in-place eased 0.1% (+4.9% y/y) during October. The weakening was the same as in September, revised from no change. It followed a 0.4% August decline, revised from +0.8%. A 0.4% increase had been expected [...]

The ISM composite index of business activity in the factory sector increased to 59.3 during November after a decline to 57.7 in October. A reading of 57.5 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During the last ten [...]

The National Association for Business Economics projects 2.7% growth in real GDP during 2019, unchanged from the prior forecast in June. That follows an expected 2.9% rise this year, revised from the earlier forecast of 2.8% growth. [...]

The National Association for Business Economics projects 2.7% growth in real GDP during 2019, unchanged from the prior forecast in June. That follows an expected 2.9% rise this year, revised from the earlier forecast of 2.8% growth. [...]

The Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer surged to 66.4 during November from an unrevised 58.4 in October. It was the highest level since December and followed three consecutive months of decline. The Action Economics [...]