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Mortgage rates retreated this week, following two consecutive weeks climbing higher. The average conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate decreased to 4.58 percent., according to Bankrate.com. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.40 discount and origination points.

Governments should urgently reform their sickness and disability benefit systems to help people get back to work and reduce the burden on public finances, according to a new OECD report.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 21 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season, as well as its official spending forecast for the season. For the holiday season-to-date, $9.01 billion has been spent online, marking a 13-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.

U.S. households are expected to spend an average of $384 on Christmas gifts this holiday season, slightly less than last year’s estimate of $390, The Conference Board reports.

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in October. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rate decreases, 14 states registered rate increases, and 17 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia posted unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, 16 states reported increases, and 5 states had no change. The national jobless rate was unchanged in October at 9.6 percent but was down from 10.1 percent a year earlier.

In September 2010 compared with August 2010, the euro area (EA16) industrial new orders index fell by 3.8%. In August the index rose by 5.1%. In the EU27, new orders decreased by 2.5% in September 2010, after a gain of 3.5% in August3. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders declined by 3.3% in the euro area and by 0.7% in the EU27.

Employers took 1,651 mass layoff actions in October that resulted in the separation of 148,059 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer. The number of mass layoff events in October increased by 121 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 9,839. In October, 356 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 37,438 initial claims; both figures increased over the month.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Australia declined 0.1 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 0.3 percent in September.

Consumer confidence in the overall economy and in technology spending both improved in November to the highest points of the year, according to the latest figures released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®.