Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

The median selling price of a U.S. home rose 15 percent to $373,300 in March, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a record dating back to at least 1999. At the same time, sales fell 2.7 percent nationwide from February, and 4.5 percent year on year, as rising mortgage interest rates combined with...

The Dow Jones Transportation Average, which tracks share prices of 20 major freight-moving companies, declined 13 percent in value from 29 March through 12 April, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many investors see transportation stocks as leading indicators, losing value when business and consumer spending decline and often signaling a broad economic slowdown ahead. The...

Keeping the war talk going, share prices of aerospace and defense-related companies were leading the broader market this year by 17 points as of 23 April, the most in a decade and only the third time since 1999, according to an MSCI index. Investors see Western nations adding to military budgets as a result of...

Leases are expiring this year on 243 million square feet of office—about 11 percent of the total office space in the U.S.—at a time when businesses are adopting remote work as normal. The footage becoming available is the most since at least 2015, according to data service JLL, the year in which it began tracking...

We are trend forecasters.  As we say at the Trends Journal, “Opportunity misses those who view the world through the eyes of their profession.”  Tracking trends is the understanding of how we got here to see where we are going. As the German philosopher Friedrich von Schiller noted back in 1790, “In today already walks...

Creating a digital version of the U.S. dollar will take years, treasury secretary Janet Yellin said in a 7 April speech at American University, although China and some other countries already have fielded digital versions of their currencies, as we reported in “China Goes Full Digital Yuan in Beijing” (29 Jun 2021) and “Canada Forging...

The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM’s) purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the U.S. service sector rose to 58.3% this month from 56.5% in March, after three consecutive months of declines. Readings above 50.1% indicate growth; higher numbers signal stronger activity. The index’s employment measure jumped from 48.5 last month to 54.0 now, indicating that service...

The monthly Logistics Managers Survey, compiled by five U.S. universities, rose from 75.2 in February to 76.2 in March. The survey samples conditions related to managing stock inventories, warehousing, and transportation. Ratings above 50 indicate business momentum; the higher the number, the stronger the activity. The amount of inventory in warehouses dropped from February’s rating...

Just as America has lost every major war it started—from Korean War, to Vietnam War, from Afghan War to Iraq War—so too has the great world power, “We’re #1, “The Exceptionals” lost the Trump Trade war that he loudly launched against China when he won the 2016 Presidential Reality Show® U.S. election.  The U.S. trade...

Stock index values on opening have bounced up and down recently, changing direction dramatically within an hour but without any news to spark the changes, according to Pam Martens, editor of Wall Street on Parade. For example, on 30 March, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened trading at about 35,230. Within 30 minutes, it rose...