Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT – May 30 2023

The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to withhold details about its most notorious public scandal in recent history.

To 27 May, eight companies, each with more than $500 million in liabilities, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month, including five in one day. Last year, the monthly average was three filings, the Financial Times noted.

For the first time since at least 2012, the sale price of U.S. commercial real estate declined in the first quarter, year over year, according to a review of sales data by Moody’s Analytics.

The number of U.S. six-figure earners living paycheck to paycheck has reached 49 percent, according to the latest LendingTree study, compared to 42 percent at the end of last year.

Consumer spending rose 0.8 percent last month after rising just 0.1 percent in both February and March, the U.S. commerce department reported. Even adjusted for inflation, spending was up 0.5 percent in April.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s favorite measure of inflation, rose 0.4 percent in April after gaining just 0.1 percent in March.

Dollar Tree’s earnings in its most recently completed quarter missed analysts’ expectations and sent the company’s share price sliding 14 percent.

Investors and bank depositors seeking a combination of safety and high returns continued sending their cash into money market funds last week as a U.S. debt default remained possible and fears about the banking industry continued to reverberate.