Pretax profits from New York State’s securities industry totaled $27.6 billion during the six months of this year, an 82-percent rise above those of the same period in 2019 and the biggest six-month gain since 2009, according to a 22 October report from New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The industry’s profits for all of...
Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT
Post
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY WEAKENS
Is the building boom over? Building contractors are seeing more projects canceled than new ones started, and industry employment has fallen during the past 12 months, the General Contractors of America trade group reported in a 28 October press announcement. Three-quarters of contractors have had at least one scheduled project postponed or canceled in October,...
Post
HOUSING BOOM MAY FADE WITH PANDEMIC
Although September housing sales were 20.5 percent more than those a year earlier and U.S. median home prices are at record levels, the housing boom may disappear as COVID cases diminish, the Wall Street Journal reported in a 23 October analysis. The boom is the result of three factors. First, as we had forecast when...
Post
HOME-BUYING FRENZY EASES
The number of signed contracts to buy existing homes dropped 2 percent in September from August, the National Association of Realtors reported. It was the first month-on-month decline since May, although the number of signed contracts remained 20.5 percent greater than a year earlier. Analysts blamed high prices, driven up by the shortage of houses...
Post
STATES FACE CASH CRUNCH
Across the U.S., states could see a cumulative $424-billion deficit through 2022, according to Moody’s Analytics. The figure assumes there is no federal aid to states, that some degree of economic restrictions remain in force, and Medicaid expenses rise to cover the medical costs of people without jobs. Connecticut’s quick, drastic economic shutdown this spring...
Post
MALL OWNERS FACING ULTIMATUMS
Lenders have foreclosed on the Saks Fifth Avenue store that anchors Miami’s Dadeland Mall after the retailer has left its April and subsequent mortgage bills unpaid. The $846-million note is secured not only by the Florida store but also by 24 Lord & Taylor stores around the U.S., meaning the bondholders also could seize those...
Post
GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRENDS
AUTOMATION THREATENS JOBS AS NEW SHUTDOWNS TAKE HOLD. With politicians closing – again – sectors of their states’ and nations’ economies to blunt the latest surge in COVID cases, companies are rushing the adoption of automating technologies that will let them maintain production without human workers, according to a new study by the World Economic...
Post
U.S. MARKETS OVERVIEW
As we report in this and previous issues of the Trends Journal, nations, states, and cities are imposing new lockdown rules to fight the COVID War. Yet, despite the hard data of the massive economic destruction these measures have wrought on businesses, lives, and livelihoods, U.S. markets are climbing again following the sharp sell-off last...
Post
GOING DOWN, GOING BUST, GOING OUT
BUS INDUSTRY FURLOUGHS 80,000 WORKERS. The U.S. motorcoach industry has idled 80 percent of its workforce, or about 80,000 workers, as the pandemic and economic shutdown have slammed the brakes on long-distance bus travel that had been providing about 600 million passenger trips a year, according to the American Bus Association. In an industry that sees...
Post
GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRENDS
15 PERCENT OF CANADA’S INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES POISED TO FAIL. Canada’s holiday shoppers plan to spend 66 percent of their gift dollars online and at big-box stores, according to a new survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Many independent retailers are counting on strong holiday sales to lift them beyond the months of...