Economy

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said a large stimulus package is still necessary to get the economy back to full strength, despite momentum suggesting that growth is off to a faster start than anticipated in 2021. In a CNBC interview, the lead economic official in the Biden administration said the $1.9 trillion proposal could

Consumers flocked to spend their stimulus checks in January, sending retail sales for the month up 5.3% in a blockbuster start to 2021, according to a government report Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting a rise of just 1.2%. Excluding autos, sales rose 5.9%, also far ahead of the 1% estimate in a

A contractor works on the basement of a home under construction in the Toll Brothers Regency at Palisades community in Charlotte, North Carolina. Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images Buyer demand for newly built homes continues to surge, and that is keeping builder confidence high even as building material prices climb. Builder sentiment rose

People count money at Macy’s Herald Square store in New York. Andrew Kelly | Reuters Total consumer debt rose to nearly $14.6 trillion as 2020 came to a close, pushed by a record-breaking rise for mortgages in the red-hot housing market, according to a Federal Reserve report Wednesday. Debt increased 1.4% for the final three

St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said Tuesday that he doesn’t see a bubble in asset prices and doubts the central bank needs to start tightening policy anytime soon. With prices surging in the stock market and in alternative assets like bitcoin, Fed officials have faced repeated questions about whether low rates and trillions

Federal Reserve Jerome Powell testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on “The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress” on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2020. Susan Walsh | Reuters Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell painted a dour picture on the state of U.S. employment and said Wednesday that continued aggressive policy support

Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker said Thursday that the central bank won’t have to worry about inflation getting in its way anytime soon. In a CNBC interview, Harker faced a question posed repeatedly to Fed officials in recent days over whether its easy monetary policy could stoke price pressures and interfere with what he

The federal budget deficit is projected to total $2.3 trillion in the 2021 fiscal year, a drop from last year but well ahead of anything the U.S. had seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday. That total does not include the $1.9 trillion in relief spending that President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden is on the best presidential honeymoon since at least Bill Clinton in 1993. A special online edition of the CNBC All-America Economic Survey focusing on the Biden agenda finds his approval rating at a sky-high 62%, beating the first presidential ratings of Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Donald

First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 793,000 last week as declining Covid-19 cases provided little relief for the jobs market. The total for the week ended Feb. 6 was above the 760,000 forecast from economists surveyed by Dow Jones but a slight decrease from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 812,000. The pandemic era

Getty Images Investors are waiting for inflation to pick up, but the consumer price index should show just a slight gain in January, boosted by rising gasoline prices. Economists expect a consensus 0.3% increase in the index, a measure of inflation, or a year-over-year gain of 1.5%, according to Dow Jones. Excluding food and energy,

H&R Block mortgage services sign Jb Reed | Bloomberg | Getty Images Mortgage delinquencies in November fell to their lowest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, though the number is still far higher than the rate a year earlier.  Just under 6% of all U.S. mortgages — 2.7 million homes — were in

A hiring sign is posted i front of a Target store on February 05, 2021 in San Rafael, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images Employers added slightly more job posts late last year, but hiring slipped as the labor market ended 2020 on an uncertain note, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Total openings increased to

Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S. December 13, 2017. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters The U.S. could return to full employment in 2022 if President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package is passed, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on

Job growth returned to the U.S. in January, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 49,000 while the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%, the Labor Department said Friday in the first employment report of the Biden administration. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for growth of 50,000 and the unemployment to hold unchanged at 6.7%.

Cars line up to pick up food boxes at the Athens County Fairgrounds in Athens, Ohio on Dec. 19, 2020. BRAD LEE | AFP | Getty Images Long-term unemployment is edging toward a historical peak, almost a year into the pandemic-fueled downturn. Workers are deemed to be “long-term unemployed” when their jobless spell is longer

Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery Food Specialist Megan Catarious, prepares a crepe at the crepe bar at the Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery on Penn Ave in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, January 22, 2021. Ben Hasty | MediaNews Group | Reading Eagle via Getty Images January’s employment picture appears to have improved over December, but how much so depends

Weekly jobless claims came in a bit less than expected last week though U.S. employment gains remain sluggish. First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 779,000 for the week ended Jan. 30, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That was below the 830,000 estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. This was the lowest week for claims