Economy in Brief

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level increased to 42.4 during November and recouped most of its October decline. A higher 55% of [...]

Gasoline prices fell last week to an average $2.61 per gallon (+1.7% y/y) from $2.69 during the prior week. Prices have fallen from an average high of $2.90 in the last six weeks to the lowest level since mid-March. Haver Analytics [...]

Total housing starts rose 1.5% (-2.9% y/y) during October to 1.228 million units (AR) from 1.210 million in September, revised from 1.201 million. The rise matched expectations for 1.228 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The euro area shows sharp drops in its current account and goods surpluses over three months, six months and 12 months. The current account surplus has dropped to 17 billion euros, a decline of 23 billion euros from its level of 12 [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo declined to 60 during November from 68 in October. It was the lowest reading since August 2016 and compared to the expansion high of 74 in [...]

BEA has released estimates of state GDP for the second quarter. Along with the new quarterly figures revised histories of state GDP were released, consistent with last summer’s benchmark GDP revision. The highlighted figures were real [...]

Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Germany lead the EMU internal inflation parade (in that order). Pulling up the rear are Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Finland (in that order). The euro area does show some Keynesian tendencies as areas [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its index of regional manufacturing sector business activity increased to 15 in November from 8 in October. It remained down, however, from the May high of 29. The ISM-Adjusted [...]