Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

The U.S. economy added 850,000 jobs last month and, for the third consecutive month,  employers reported raising wages to attract those new and returning workers. Pay rose 0.3 percent in June from the month before and has climbed 3.6 percent year-on-year through June. Low-wage jobs received the biggest bumps, the New York Times reported. Leisure...

Consumer borrowing for car loans, personal loans, and general credit card use zoomed 39 percent in April, year over year, and 11 percent above April 2019’s level, according to credit reporting agency Equifax. In March, lenders made three million loans for vehicle leases and purchases, Equifax noted, 53 percent more than a year earlier and...

The word on The Street is that a strong economic rebound and cash-rich consumers in advanced economies will be able to absorb any ongoing rise in oil prices, according to several economists who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. Benchmark Brent crude prices have more than doubled over the past 12 months and as we...

With U.S. equity markets up 92 percent from their depths of March 2020 and a growing number of analysts warning of a correction, more investors are buying derivatives that would turn a profit if markets fall. As a result, the Skew Index – the spread between the cost of those derivatives and the opportunity to...

On 7 July, yields on U.S. treasury bonds fell to 1.32 percent, their lowest return since 18 February, the Wall Street Journal reported. Investors grew skittish about the bumpy economic recovery and news from Israel that Pfizer’s COVID vaccine might not be thoroughly effective against the virus’s highly contagious Delta variant spreading around the world,...

Since 1 February 2021, U.S. equity markets have collected a net $189 billion in new investment, the Financial Times reported, with a net new $28 billion in June alone, according to Vanda Research. It was the highest monthly inflow since 2014, even topping last January’s flood of cash during the first meme-stock craze. Last year’s...

After dropping more than 400 points on last Tuesday and more than 500 on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to close the 9 July week with a 1.3-percent boost and set a new record high close at 34,870. The S&P 500 added 48.73 to end the week at 4,369. The NASDAQ climbed 142...

As we have been forecasting for several months, but as the Federal Reserve and The Street have been denying, inflation is real. And if it was “temporary” as the hucksters keep claiming, prices would not have surged in June at its fastest pace in nearly 13 years. The U.S. Labor Department reported today that the...