Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Markets await Beige Book with moderate optimism

Jeff Horwich Oct 10, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Markets await Beige Book with moderate optimism

Jeff Horwich Oct 10, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Today’s economic-release-of-note is the Federal Reserve’s enticingly-named “Beige Book.” We’ll get our hands on it this afternoon.

The Beige Book is a summary of economic conditions across the country across various regional reserve banks which the Federal Reserve uses to set monetary policies such as interest rates. Gus Faucher with PNC Financial Services Group, expects the report to show continued modest growth, “economic growth has softened slightly from late 2011-early 2012.”

Also this morning, the Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting a surge in weekly home mortgage applications. “It looks like demand for housing continues to improve,” says Faucher, “affordability is incredibly high given low rates and the big price declines that we’ve seen, and so households with job gains and income growth are looking to purchase homes, and that is supporting economic growth.”

 

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.