Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

Last week, Domino’s Pizza reported $129.3 million in profits in 2019’s fourth quarter on revenue of $1.15 billion. Sales were up 3.4 percent during the period, topping expectations of 2.3 percent. The chain’s share price rose 26 percent after the figures were released. Domino’s is one of the few fast-food chains to refuse to work...

Franklin Resources, the parent company of the Franklin Templeton mutual funds family, has bought Baltimore-based investment company Legg Mason for $4.5 billion. Franklin offered $23 in cash for each outstanding Legg Mason share, a 23-percent premium over the trading price on 14 February. Franklin also will take on Legg Mason’s $2 billion in debt. After...

Auto sales to people ages 35 and younger fell 4.5 percent in 2019, according to J.D. Power. In contrast, sales to those 56 and older grew 1 percent. The difference illustrates two market shifts. First, carmakers are making fewer small sedans and hatchbacks and are producing more SUVs and trucks, which are selling strongly while...

Fracturing, or “fracking,” rocks deep in the Earth to release and harvest natural gas has made the U.S. an energy exporter, kept fuel prices low by pushing out more supply than there is demand, while hitting the domestic coal industry hard. But the fracked wells’ renowned bounteous productivity has left many gas producers facing bankruptcy....

Walmart, the U.S.’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, reported sales rose 1.9 percent in November, December, and January, compared with 4.2 percent during the same period a year earlier and 3.2 percent in 2019’s third quarter. Operating income dropped 3.7 percent in last year’s final three months. Holiday sales of clothing, toys, and video games were slow,...

U.S. consumer spending rose 0.3 percent from December to January. The increase came in sales by auto dealers, gas stations, restaurants, and home and garden supply stores. Outside of those categories, sales were flat from month to month. Analysts had expected an increase. Retail sales figures for last October and November have been revised downward,...

It was bad economic news before coronavirus fears took center stage this month. Europe’s fourth quarter 2019 growth rate of 0.1 percent has crushed hopes that some analysts held for an economic rebound. The rate was the slowest since early 2013. The sag deepened with retail sales falling 1.6 percent in December, the sector’s weakest...

Last week, three Federal Reserve bank officers said they see no need to lower interest rates, despite market expectations of as many as two cuts this year. Raphael Bostic, president of Atlanta’s Fed branch, said on Friday he strongly expects “that the economy is not going to see rising risks and it’s going to stay...