Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

U.S. State claims for unemployment benefits bumped up by 23,000 in the most recent week to 248,000, disappointing economists polled by Reuters, who had forecast 219,000 new applications. New claims had been decreasing since mid-January as reports of new Omicron cases declined, plummeting from 700,000 a day then to under 145,000 in the most recent...

UKRAINE WORRIES SINK STOCKS. REALLY? It’s been the mainstream narrative. Equities across the globe have been sinking as concerns mounted over Russia’s pending war with Ukraine… a fear that has intensified as Russia moves troops into the Russian separatist eastern Ukraine.  Why is this happening, what does it mean and what’s next has been detailed...

Although the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year, banks are unlikely to raise interest rates on savings accounts or CDs, The Wall Street Journal said. Banks just don’t need to offer higher returns to attract more money. During the COVID War, the U.S. savings rate reached near-record levels, padded by government stimulus...

At the end of 2021, there were 411,000 fewer homes on the market that were affordable for households making $75,000 to $100,000 a year, compared to the end of 2019, according to a study released 7 February by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Households in that income category could afford 51 percent of the...

The median sale price of an existing single-family home was $361,700 in 2021’s fourth quarter, a 14.6-percent gain from a year earlier, in 181 of the 183 metro areas watched by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the association reported. However, the price was slightly less than the $363,000 median set in last year’s third...

U.S. consumer spending on basic and essential goods and services such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, and utilities rose to a record proportion of household incomes, according to a December survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Spending on cars, furniture, home repairs, and other major expenses had dropped, consumers reported. Households surveyed...

In the dead-woke world of the Presidential Reality Show®, where the President takes the stage to brag about strong GDP growth and rising wages for the plantation workers of Slavelandia, the average U.S. household is laying out an extra $276 a month to cover the rise in prices over the past year, according to a...

Inflation ran at 7.5 percent in January, year over year, its fastest pace since February 1982, topping December’s 7-percent rate. Used-car prices soared 40 percent year on year; the cost of energy climbed 29 percent.  Overall food costs shot up 7 percent, their sharpest annual gain since 1981, with grocery prices rising 7.4 percent and...

January’s 7.5-percent inflation pace all but guarantees that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise its key interest rate next month from the 0.25 percent where the Fed has held it since March 2020. The remaining variable is the size of the rate hike. Traditionally, the Fed raises its rate by a quarter of a percentage...

The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index traded in late January as low as 19.3 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, its first dip below 20 since April 2020, according to data service FactSet. The index entered 2022 at a 21.5 multiple and still remains above the five-year average of 18.9. As of...