[05/06/15]  Private employers in the United States added in April the smallest monthly number of workers in more than a year. And, in another report, the Labor Department found that nonfarm productivity fell in the first quarter as harsh winter weather depressed output.

Payrolls in the private sector increased by 169,000 last month, the ADP National Employment Report showed, the fewest since January 2014.

March payrolls were revised down to show 14,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported. The report developed with Moody's Analytics was released before the government's more comprehensive employment findings, which are due on Friday. Although it has...

[04/14/15]  The March rebound in U.S. retail sales was less impressive than economists forecast, signaling consumers are in no rush to spend the windfall from cheaper fuel prices. Purchases increased 0.9 percent, the first gain in four months, according to Commerce Department figures issued Tuesday in Washington. The median forecast of 87 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected retail sales would advance 1.1 percent. Other reports showed inflation is tame and small-business confidence ebbed. Americans are focused on using the savings at the gas pump to shore up finances even as employment and confidence firm and interest rates remain low. A boost in wage growth may be what’s needed...

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[03/03/15]  Told ya the Nasdaq was a buy at 5000. OK, so it took 15 years, two presidencies, a couple of wars, a tech bubble collapse, a massive terrorist attack, a global financial crisis, and the rise and fall of reality TV. But hey, we're in for the long haul, right? Our fathers' fathers, who purchased an equivalent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the peak of the market in September 1929, had to wait 25 years, until November 1954, before it recovered its Roaring '20s high. Times were tougher back then. The world is much different even than it was in March 2000, when the Nasdaq last...

[02/24/15]  U.S. consumers are feeling a bit less confident this month, but their spirits are still at the highest levels since before the Great Recession. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dropped this month to 96.4 from a revised 103.8 in January. The February and January readings are the highest since before the recession officially started in December 2007. Consumers are modestly less confident about current economic conditions and considerably less confident about the next six months. They are slightly more likely to say jobs are "hard to get" than they were in January. A year ago, the consumer confidence index was a much lower...