Economy

A home for sale is seen in Santa Monica, California. Lucy Nicholson | Reuters After a record-setting July, the housing market still shows no sign of cooling off. Sales of existing homes rose 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 6 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were 10.5% higher

Contractors work on a new home under construction at Taylor Morrison Home Corp.’s La Solara Community in Dublin, California. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images With no major move in mortgage rates, there was no sudden incentive to refinance a home loan last week, so fewer people did. That drove overall mortgage application

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, wearing a face mask, testifies before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee during a hearing on oversight of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve response to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 30, 2020. Tasos Katopodis | Reuters The Federal Reserve

Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk by a sign displayed outside a retail store in Harlem, New York City, saying it’s going out of business. Noam Galai | Getty Images Yelp on Wednesday released its latest Economic Average Report, revealing business closures across the U.S. are increasing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic’s economic toll. 

The Fed left rates unchanged in its last meeting before the 2020 presidential election in November. It also indicated rates were unlikely to rise until at least 2023. Three experts weigh in on what the Fed decision means. David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said this is unprecedented stimulus.  “I don’t think

The Federal Reserve kept its pledge to keep interest rates anchored near zero and promised to keep rates there until inflation rises consistently. As the central bank concluded its two-day policy meeting Wednesday, it said short-term rates would remain targeted at 0%-0.25%. Officials also changed their economic forecasts to reflect a smaller decline in GDP

James Bullard Olivia Michael | CNBC St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard offered an optimistic look on the U.S. economy, with “off the charts” growth that will help lift inflation. Bullard also said he sees the unemployment rate falling to 6.5% by the end of the year, an estimate well below the median projection

A Kelly Center for Hunger Relief volunteer sorts through food for distribution as residents in vehicles wait in line at a church in El Paso, Texas, on July 17. Joel Angel Juarez/Bloomberg via Getty Images Are you in the top 1%, 5% or 10% of the U.S. income and wealth scale? If you are, congratulations

Bobcat fire approaches Sierra Madre and Arcadia communities in California, U.S., September 13, 2020 in this picture obtained from social media. Photo taken September 13, 2020. John Mirabella | Reuters Despite official resistance to the idea in the Trump administration, the wildfires raging across California, Oregon and Washington — swallowing millions of acres and leaving

First-time claims for unemployment insurance beat Wall Street estimates last week as the U.S. economy enters a critical new stage. Filings totaled 860,000 for the week ended Sept. 12, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected 875,000, against the previous week’s upwardly revised 893,000. The number represents a modest downshift

Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, Jan. 29, 2020. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Fed does not expect to see inflation pick up for years, and it is willing to keep rates at zero even

U.S. consumer spending appeared to slow in August as extended unemployment benefits were cut for millions of Americans, offering more evidence that the economic recovery from the Covid-19 recession was faltering. Core retail sales, which correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, fell 0.1% last month after a downwardly revised

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the January 28-29 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, in Washington, DC on January 29, 2020. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images While committed to keeping interest rates low for the next several years, the Federal Reserve still has plenty of work to

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell during a speech on March 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. Mark Makela/Getty Images In the first CNBC Fed Survey since the Federal Reserve announced its new, more dovish monetary policy strategy, respondents now forecast no rate hikes from the central bank until 2023. The results are a potential first

Weekly jobless claims were worse than expected last week amid a plodding climb for the U.S. labor market from the damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Labor Department on Thursday reported 884,000 first-time filings for unemployment insurance, compared with 850,000 expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The total was unchanged from the previous

A person wears a protective face mask while carrying grocery bags outside Trader Joe’s on August 11, 2020 in New York City. Noam Galai | Getty Images Goldman Sachs economists said they see third quarter GDP growth tracking at 35%, driven in large part by the surprising strength of consumer spending. Goldman said its tracking

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said his biggest economic concerns in the U.S. are inflation and the budget deficit. “My overall view is that the inflation outlook is unfortunately negative and that’s essentially the result of entitlements crowding out private investment and productivity growth,” Greenspan said in an interview Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on

Joel Porro and Lizz Hernandez wear gloves and protective masks as they put bags in the trunk of their car after shopping at Walmart Supercenter as the coronavirus pandemic continues, March 5, 2020 in Miami. David Santiago | Miami Herald | Tribune News Service via Getty Images U.S. consumer prices increased solidly in August, but