Economy

People ride scooters past the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. Erin Scott | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Federal Reserve dialed up its economic expectations slightly for the end of this year as well as for 2021, according to the central bank’s Summary of Economic

Jobless claims unexpectedly rose last week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to pressure the economy while lawmakers struggle to push through new government aid, the Labor Department said Thursday. The number of first-time unemployment-benefits filers totaled 885,000 in the week ending Dec. 12, the most since the week of Sept. 5. Economists polled by Dow

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday made a key adjustment to its efforts to support the economy, while upgrading its outlook for growth. As expected, the Fed held benchmark interest rates near zero following the conclusion of its two-day meeting. Investors were watching whether the Fed would present outcomes-based guidance in which it would state the

A house under construction is seen in Culver City, a neighborhood of Los Angeles on November 21, 2020. Chris Delmas | AFP | Getty Images After three straight months of record highs, homebuilder confidence in the single-family housing market pulled back in December. Builders say they are concerned that buyers are starting to experience sticker

David Solomon, CEO, Goldman Sachs, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2020. Adam Galacia | CNBC Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said that small businesses it surveyed are in dire need of another round of emergency Paycheck Protection Program funding. “They really have needs; 90% of them have exhausted their

Warren Buffett Gerry Miller | CNBC Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, urged Congress to extend aid to small businesses as they continue to struggle through the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s an economic war,” Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box,” speaking alongside Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon about helping small

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin listens to a question during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on “Oversight of the Treasury Department’s and Federal Reserve’s Pandemic Response” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, December 2, 2020. Greg Nash | Pool | Reuters The decision by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin not to extend the funding

We still haven’t seen “the storm before the calm.” So says Alejandra Grindal, senior international economist at Ned Davis Research, despite the market’s run to record highs, reignited Tuesday by positive announcements around a Covid-19 vaccine. The U.K. began rolling out Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine to its citizens Tuesday, just as the U.S. Food and

People line up to receive free holiday boxes of food from the Food Bank For New York City ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, U.S., November 16, 2020. Brendan McDermid | Reuters The surprise jump in new jobless claims

Shoppers hold hands at the Willow Grove Park Mall in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, November 14, 2020. Mark Makela | Reuters Almost 40% of Americans plan to spend less on gifts this holiday season than they did last year, the largest such percentage since 2013, according to the CNBC All-America Economic Survey. Just 11% plan to

American homeowners are $1 trillion richer as the pandemic-driven housing boom pads their pockets. As prices rise, home equity multiplies. In the past year, homeowners with mortgages, representing about 63% of all properties, have seen their equity increase by 10.8%, according to CoreLogic. That equates to a collective $1 trillion in gained equity, or an

The pace of weekly jobless claims jumped last week after filings caught up with a decline due in part to the Thanksgiving holiday. First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 853,000, an increase from the upwardly revised 716,000 total a week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting 730,000.

Teresa Nguyen, a respiratory therapist, goes over a patient’s charts inside a room for people with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a hospital in Hutchinson, Kansas, November 20, 2020. Callaghan O’Hare | Reuters The U.S. economy will recover faster than expected in part because the sectors most susceptible to the most recent coronavirus spread aren’t

A for sale sign is posted in front of a home as interest rates for home loans climbed to nearly 4% in the wake of the election of Donald Trump to be the U.S. president on November 17, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images Mortgage rates fell again, falling to a record

LONDON — Saxo Bank says universal basic income could become a permanent reality next year, triggering a “seismic rebalancing” of society as workers wave “bye-bye” to big city life. In a report entitled “Outrageous Predictions,” the Danish bank on Tuesday outlined 10 “outlandish forecasts” for 2021, although it did stress these are not its “official”

Charles Scharf Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said Tuesday that the U.S. economy will probably rebound quickly from the coronavirus next year after vaccines are widely distributed. As head of the fourth-biggest U.S. bank by assets, Scharf has a unique view into the saving and spending activity of

Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said he wouldn’t be in favor of changing the central bank’s bond-purchasing program even though he sees some rocky times ahead for the U.S. economy. Speaking Wednesday to CNBC, Kaplan said financial conditions are such that the Fed probably doesn’t need to do more than its current pace of

In the months since the U.S. labor market shed roughly 22.2 million jobs at the start of the coronavirus recession, some 10 million roles still have not recovered as the virus drags on and a host of stimulus policies intended to keep Americans housed, fed and able to meet essential needs expire in three weeks.