The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing price
index — on a non-seasonally adjusted basis — rose 1.1% in March after a 1.3%
increase in February. On a year-over-year basis, when compared with March 2012,
prices rose 10.9%, the first double-digit annual gain since May 2006.
The consumer confidence index reached a five-year high at
76.2 in May from a revised 69 in April. The index was benchmarked at 100 in
1985, a year chosen because it was neither a peak nor a trough in consumer
confidence.
Pending home sales, a forward-looking indicator based on
signed contracts, rose 0.3% in April after a 1.5% increase in March. On a
year-over-year basis, pending home sales were 10.3% higher than April 2012.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted
composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending May 24 fell 8.8%.
Purchase volume fell 3%. Refinancing applications decreased 12%.
The Commerce Department announced that gross domestic product
— the total output of goods and services produced in the U.S. — increased at a
revised annual rate of 2.4% in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the
initial estimate of a 2.5% increase.
Retail sales fell 0.9% for the week ending May 25, according
to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index. On a year-over-year basis, retailers saw sales
increase 2.8%.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending
May 25 rose by 10,000 to 354,000. Continuing claims for the week ending May 18
rose by 63,000 to 2.986 million. The less volatile four-week average of claims
for unemployment benefits was 347,250.
Upcoming on the economic calendar are reports on construction
spending on June 3 and factory orders on June 5.