Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

With prices for raw materials climbing, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and other makers of consumer staples have laid plans to pass those greater costs to consumers. We had predicted back in our 4 August 2020 issue that inflation – caused in part by supply-chain disruptions and then pushed up by higher demand as economies...

Once again, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee decided unanimously to leave its policies unchanged, although the Fed has acknowledged the economy is strengthening and prices are rising. For now, the Fed will continue to hold interest rates just above zero and buy about $120 billion a month in government and corporate bonds. “Amid...

The U.S. economy grew 6.4 percent in this year’s first quarter, led by the return of consumer spending, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. In mid-March, consumers’ outlays were 29 percentage points higher than in March 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal. Consumers began the new year venting pent-up demand, spending particularly on goods and...

In March, U.S. household income shot up 21.1 percent from February, the U.S. Commerce Department reported, setting a record one-month jump and fueling first-quarter economic growth of 6.4 percent.  The windfall, which included $1,400 in federal payouts to most U.S. adults, sent consumer spending up 4.2 percent and personal consumption spending 10.7 percent higher in...

Bond prices have weakened as a growing number of investors expect higher yields, despite 28 April comments by U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell that the Fed has no plans to throttle back its monthly rate of bond purchases. “It is not time yet,” he said in comments quoted by the Financial Times. “Economic activity...

With the economy opening up after over a year of lockdowns, the hi-tech stocks that boomed as the world went virtual are in retreat. Today, the markets reversed sharper losses with the Dow up 19.80 points, the NASDAQ down 1.88 percent, and the S&P 500 off 0.67 percent.  Have the markets peaked? In the week...

Lumber prices have risen 67 percent this year and 340 percent in the past 12 months, according to Random Lengths, a lumber industry research firm. The price spikes have added $35,872 to the average cost of a newly built single-family home and $12,966 to the market value of a multifamily dwelling, the National Association of...

U.S. share prices slipped on April’s last trading day but registered gains for the month as companies reported strong first-quarter earnings. Investors’ buoyant mood was tempered by the mainstream media blasting fear and hysteria of rising coronavirus cases in India.  Indeed, last Thursday, CNN, the Cartoon News Network, hyped the India COVID crisis as “a...