Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

Coca-Cola’s organic revenue in this year’s second quarter was 37 percent more than the same period last year, also rising above 2019’s revenues for that quarter, and profits grew 49 percent year-on-year to $2.6 billion, the company reported. Sales volume increased 17 percent in North America, 12 percent in Latin America, 16 percent in Asia,...

Sales were down 3 percent in this year’s second quarter at Kimberly-Clark, maker of such consumer staples as Huggies and Kleenex. Home-care products brought in 17 percent less revenue, year over year. Sales of personal care products rose 6 percent and commercial products 2 percent.  Margins slid 40 percent, more than analysts were expecting. The...

Several large corporations are mandating white-collar workers to return to offices starting after Labor Day or, in many cases, right now. Abbott Laboratories wants virtually all U.S. office workers back at its Chicago headquarters this month; in Pontiac, Michigan, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) already has brought almost all 9,300 employees back to its 200-acre campus....

At this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, the Banksters will discuss when to begin tapering off the central bank’s $120-billion-a-month bond-buying program, and raise interest rates now that the nation’s economic recovery has allegedly blossomed more quickly than they had forecast at the beginning of this year. The cheap money scheme, which began in March...

Toronto-based Tricon Residential Inc., which owns apartment buildings and about 25,000 rental houses across North America, has partnered with Pacific Life Insurance, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, and an unnamed foreign investor to buy even more houses. The three will contribute as much as $1.55 billion to the new effort, which will combine with...

The number of U.S. home sales grew 1.4 percent in June from the month before, and 22.9 percent year over year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported. The median price of existing homes sold set another new record at $363,000, gaining 23.4 percent over the median in June 2020.  Houses sold in June were...

New claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 419,000 in the week ending 17 July, the highest number since 15 May, according to the U.S. labor department. Auto makers laid off workers as the computer chip shortage persisted, idling assembly lines, The Wall Street Journal reported. The number was far above Dow Jones’ estimate of 350,000...

While the dollar weakened a bit today, the U.S. Dollar Index showed the buck’s value hovering near its highest value of the year last week, compared to six other major currencies. The dollar closed the week at 92.91, just below its 30 March high of 93.30 this year and well above the low of 89.44...

The U.S. Federal Reserve will begin to pare back its $120-billion-a-month bond purchasing program in the first quarter of next year, according to a Bloomberg poll of 51 economists. A slim majority thinks the Fed will taper off its $40-billion monthly purchases of mortgage-backed securities faster than its purchase of government and corporate bonds. Some...

Commercial landlords and others who depend on the “office economy” have high hopes for fall, now that many employers have set Labor Day as the marker when employees must return to central offices.  Businesses from clothiers to skin-care retailers and food trucks are preparing to resume life as it was before the COVID War, which...