Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

Rising for six consecutive sessions, the Dow Jones Industrial Average grew 4.1 percent for the week ending 12 March and closed at 32,778.64, its best week since November. The S&P 500 added 2.6 percent last week, and the NASDAQ gained 3.1 percent, reversing a three-week string of losses, although it remained 5.5 percent below its...

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are drafting a bill designed to blunt China’s technological advantage and vault the U.S. into leadership in high-tech manufacturing and other industries that will define the global economy in coming decades. Senate committees are working on aspects of the legislation and could have a bill ready to introduce next month,...

On the economic news front, over the past few days, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made the media rounds to assure the Plantation Workers of Slavelandia that with governments pumping in $2 trillion to boost the COVID-devastated economy, they will live “happily ever after.” And, despite being out of work and/or real wages sinking lower...

Sinclair Broadcasting, which operates186 television stations in 87 U.S. markets, will cut 5 percent of its 9,211 employees, the company said in a statement. Sinclair also reported fourth-quarter revenues shrank 7 percent year on year. The company had previously cut capital investment as well as discretionary and non-essential spending. Sinclair avoided layoffs longer than several...

Live Nation Entertainment, the largest U.S. concert promoter, expects to begin offering live outdoor amphitheater shows before August, CEO Michael Rapino said in a 4 March call with investors.  About 83 percent of customers held onto their previously-purchased tickets awaiting shows to be rescheduled instead of asking for a refund during the economic shutdown, he...

Seeing carbon capture as a $2-trillion annual market by 2040, ExxonMobil is organizing its hodgepodge of 20 such projects into a new business unit named Low Carbon Solutions, CEO Darren Woods announced during a 3 March investor presentation. “Carbon capture” is an increasingly popular area of R&D that extracts carbon dioxide from air and locks...

Across the U.S., about a quarter of office workers sent home during the pandemic have returned, according to Kastle Systems, a firm that records employee card swipes in 3,600 buildings around the country. In Chicago and San Francisco, fewer than 20 percent of desk jockeys have returned; in Texas, where COVID-related strictures have been looser,...

President Biden’s $1.9-trillion economic rescue plan includes $14 billion in payroll support for U.S. airlines and $1 billion for their contractors, bringing the government’s total support for the industry to more than $63 billion since the COVID pandemic began. The newest bailout is unlikely to be enough to prevent layoffs across the industry, with air...

The gap between the value of U.S. imports and exports widened 1.9 percent to $68.2 billion in January, the Commerce Department reported, as American consumers bought more pharmaceuticals, cell phones, flat-screen televisions, and other electronic items. Imports grew 1.2 percent to $260.2 billion in January from December, returning to pre-pandemic levels, while exports added 1...

The U.S. Federal Reserve will not tighten monetary policy, Fed chair Jerome Powell reiterated on 4 March at the Wall Street Journal Jobs Summit. “We’re still a long way from our goals of maximum employment and inflation averaging 2 percent over time,” he said. With the U.S. economy still about ten million jobs short of...