Economy

Keith Cunningham from South Carolina shops for Walt Disney apparel at the Bargain World gift shop located near Walt Disney World where its conducting a phased reopening from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, July 11, 2020. Octavio Jones | Reuters Retail sales rose to a record level in July, recovering what

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building stands in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. Erin Scott | Bloomberg via Getty Images The U.S. central bank will be faced with a delicate balancing act if it opts to embrace a more relaxed view on inflation, according to a former governor of the Federal

U.S. homebuilding picked up for a third straight month in July in the latest sign the housing sector is emerging as one of the few areas of strength in an economy suffering a record slowdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Housing starts increased by 22.6% — far more than expected — to a seasonally adjusted annual rate

Shoppers are seen wearing masks while shopping at a Walmart store in Bradford, Pennsylvania, July 20, 2020. Brendan McDermid | Reuters Walmart‘s fiscal second-quarter sales got a boost from this spring’s stimulus checks, but that tapered off in July as shoppers spent that money. Now, the retail giant is waiting to see if the government

Shoppers wearing protective masks browse clothing at a store at Westfield San Francisco Centre in San Francisco, California, U.S. Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images Near-record stock market levels, a booming almost bubbling housing market and robust retail spending doesn’t sound like much of a recession. But this is no ordinary recession. The Covid-19

Potential buyers continue to flood into model homes across the nation, and that has builders feeling better about their business than they have in over 20 years. But rising lumber prices could sap the market’s momentum this fall. Builder confidence in the newly built, single-family home market jumped six points to 78 in August on

A for sale sign is seen near a house for sale in South Pasadena, California on April 24, 2020. Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images Record low mortgage rates are clearly not as impressive as they used to be. Even with another new low set last week, mortgage application volume decreased 5.1% from

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester poses during an interview on the sidelines of the American Economic Association’s annual meeting in San Diego, California, January 3, 2020. Ann Saphir | Reuters Cleveland Federal President Loretta Mester called Wednesday for more help from Congress and said the central bank stands at the ready to provide

As the White House has continued to push a narrative of a sharp recovery after a history-making recession, the economic data in large part has not been cooperating. Jobs numbers of late are showing progress but pointing to at best a gradual recovery. The sharp uptick in coronavirus cases appears to be have ebbed but

Two months of record-setting payroll growth slowed in July but was still better than Wall Street estimates even as a rise in coronavirus cases put a damper on the struggling U.S. economy. Nonfarm payrolls increased 1.763 million for the month, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 10.2% from its previous 11.1%,

Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, in an interview on February 17, 2016. David Orrell | CNBC  The U.S. economy needs an even more stringent shutdown than the last time if it’s going to defeat the coronavirus, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said. In a Friday New York Times op-ed he authored with Michael

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a sign in front of the US Department of Labor amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 29, 2020, in Washington, DC. Oliver Douliery | AFP | Getty Images Markets see a slight positive in July’s  jobs report, but the focus remains on whether Congress can agree to

The U.S. economy added a greater number of jobs than expected during July as food service workers returned in droves and helped the broader leisure and hospitality sector add more than half a million positions. The Labor Department reported Friday that payrolls increased by 1.763 million in July, above the 1.48 million estimate that economists polled