Category Archives: U.S. Economic News

[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...

[02/09/15]  U.S. stocks slipped on Monday, on the heels of disappointing Chinese economic data and increased tensions over Greek debt negotiations, though the decline was limited by another gain in oil prices. China's exports fell 3.3 percent from a year ago while imports tumbled 19.9 percent, well short of expectations, raising concerns about the health of the world's second-largest economy. "China is a negative and Greece is a negative, certainly Greece is something investors have lived with for a while and it’s not a huge surprise," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ruled out any extension of its international bailout on...

[01/28/15]  The Federal Reserve gave no signal Wednesday that it's backing away from plans to raise interest rates this year, noting that it expects unusually low inflation to gradually pick up as the "transitory effects" of tumbling oil prices fade. Disappointed investors drove down the Dow Jones industrial average 195.84 points to close at 17,191.37. "The takeaway: A Fed hike is not off the table (this year)," said Russ Koesterich, chief investment strategist at BlackRock. "And the market would like to delay that a long as it can." In a statement after a two-day meeting, the Fed's policymaking committee upgraded its economic outlook. It cited recent "strong job...

[01/23/15]  The European Central Bank’s launch of an aggressive program this week to buy more than €1 trillion in bonds poses important tests for the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve. Europe’s new program of money printing—and the resulting fall in the euro—means the U.S. economy must deal with a rapidly strengthening dollar that will make American goods more expensive abroad. The stronger dollar could slow both U.S. growth and inflation, giving the Fed some incentive to hold off on its plan to raise short-term interest rates later this year from near zero. U.S. officials have been playing down that scenario, and, more broadly, resisting talk of a global currency war—competitive...

[01/09/15]  The U.S. posted its strongest year of job growth in 15 years and the unemployment rate fell to a postrecession low last month, evidence of momentum for the labor market marred by softer wages and a rise in workforce dropouts. Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 252,000 in December, the Labor Department said Friday, with broad-based gains across a wide array of sectors. The unemployment rate, which is obtained from a separate survey of U.S. households, was 5.6% in December, down two-tenths of a percentage point from the prior month and now at its lowest level since June 2008. However, the decrease was driven in part because...

[01/08/15]  Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as labor-market tightening compelled employers to hold on to seasonal hires. Jobless claims decreased by 4,000 to 294,000 in the week ended Jan. 3, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The median forecast of 45 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a decline to 290,000. Employers finding it harder to fill vacancies are probably holding on to workers hired during the holidays as the economy expands and consumers spending picks up. The need to keep staff may mean companies will soon need to also boost wages. Claims are “low enough to be consistent with very big payroll gains,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics...