Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its existing-home sales report for April, which showed an increase in sales with total home sales rising 0.6%

The latest release of the Chicago Federal Reserve National Activity Index (CFNAI) indicated worsening for the national economy. The index fell to a weak level of -0.53 from a level of -0.23 in March, while the three-month moving average declined to a level of

Today's jobless claims report showed a notable increase in initial unemployment claims and a slight decline in continued unemployment claims, as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400,000 level. Seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims increased by 32,000 to 360,000 from 328,000 for the

Today's New Residential Construction Report

As a logical consequence of the prolonged economic downturn, participation in the federal food stamp program is continuing to rise. In fact, household participation has been climbing so steadily that it has dwarfed the last peak (which looks like a minor blip by comparison) set as a result of the immediate fallout following Hurricane Katrina. The latest data released by the Department of Agriculture indicated that in February, a notable 213,962 individual recipients were

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest nominal read of retail sales, showing an increase of 0.1% from March. It also showed a gain of 3.7% on a year-over-year basis on an aggregate of all items, including food, fuel, and healthcare services.

Nominal discretionary retail sales -- including home furnishings, home garden and building materials, consumer electronics and department store sales -- rose 0.84% from March. That's an increase of 1.8% above the level seen in April 2012, while, adjusting for inflation, real discretionary retail sales rose just 0.32% over the same period.

On a nominal basis, there had appeared to be a rough correlation between strong home value appreciation and strong retail spending preceding the housing bust, and an even stronger correlation when home values started to decline. The following chart shows the year-over-year change to nominal discretionary retail sales and the year-over-year change

The latest release of the University of Hong Kong's Hong Kong Residential Real Estate Series (HKU-REIS) indicates that, in February, the price of

Today's Employment Situation report showed that in April total unemployment -- including all marginally attached workers -- increased slightly to 13.9%, while the traditionally reported unemployment rate declined to 7.5%. The traditional unemployment rate is calculated from the monthly household survey results using a fairly explicit definition of unemployed (essentially, unemployed and currently looking for full-time

Today's

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest read of construction spending showing mixed results in March, with total private construction spending and private residential construction spending improving while non-residential construction spending declined. On a month-to-month basis, total residential spending increased 0.40% from February climbing 18.24% above the level seen in March 2012, while still remaining

Today, the Institute for Supply Management released its latest report on business for the manufacturing sector that indicated manufacturing activity declined in April. At 50.7, the purchasing manager's composite index (PMI) declined 1.17% since March, and dropped 6.28% below the level seen a year earlier. That gave an indication of slowing manufacturing activity for the second consecutive month.

Respondents appear generally positive overall with many citing strong trends and steady pace:

• "Business can be described as flat at best." (Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Products)
• "Production is still strong; several new projects to support alternative energy." (Primary Metals)
• "Slight uptick in business, but overall continuing slowdown in defense due to budget/sequester." (Computer and Electronic Products)
• "We have concerns about safety of doing business in South Korea. Our

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its pending home sales report for March. It showed that pending home sales improved with the seasonally adjusted national index, climbing 1.5% from February and increasing 7.0% above the level seen in March 2012.

Meanwhile, NARs Chief Economist Lawrence Yun is beginning to adopt

Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its first "estimate" of the Q1 2013 GDP report, showing that the economy grew in the quarter with real GDP improving at an annualized rate of 2.5% from Q4 2012. On a

Today's jobless claims report showed a decline to both initial and continued unemployment claims, as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400,000 level. Seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims declined by 16,000 to 339,000 from 355,000 for

Yesterday, the U.S. Census Department released its monthly New Residential Home Sales Report for March that showed an improvement, with sales climbing 1.5% from February. They rose 18.5%

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its Existing-Home Sales Report for March. It showed a decrease in sales, with total home sales declining 0.6%