American consumers are kicking off 2023 a bit less confident than they were at the end of last year as inflation and the possibility of a recession loom. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index slipped to ...
Read More »US consumer confidence lags as 2023 gets under way
US wage growth slowed in the final quarter of 2022 
Pay and benefits for America’s workers grew at a healthy but more gradual pace in the final three months of 2022, a third straight slowdown, which could help reassure the Federal Reserve that wage gains won’t fuel higher inflation. Wages and ...
Read More »How will we know if the US economy is in a recession? 
The second consecutive quarter of economic growth that the government recently reported underscored that the nation isn’t in a recession despite high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fastest pace of interest rate hikes in four decades. Yet the U.S. economy is ...
Read More »Fed lifts rate by quarter-point and signals more hikes ahead 
The Federal Reserve extended its fight against high inflation Wednesday by raising its key interest rate by a quarter-point, its eighth hike since March. And the Fed signaled that even though inflation is easing, it remains high enough to require ...
Read More »Google has the next move as Microsoft embraces OpenAI buzz 
Before the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT was unleashed into the world, the novelist Robin Sloan was testing a similar AI writing assistant built by researchers at Google. It didn’t take long for Sloan, author of the bestseller “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore,” to ...
Read More »Lots of sound and fury on US debt, but not a crisis — yet 
For all the sound and fury about raising the nation’s debt limit, most economists say federal borrowing is not at a crisis point … at least not yet. The national debt is at the core of a dispute about how to raise the ...
Read More »Fed, set to impose smaller hike, may hint of fewer increases 
The Federal Reserve is poised this week to raise its benchmark interest rate for an eighth time since March. But the Fed will likely announce a smaller hike for a second straight time, and it could change some key wording in ...
Read More »Wall Street falls ahead of mammoth week with Fed, earnings 
Stocks are falling on Wall Street Monday ahead of a week full of potentially market-moving events, from decisions on interest rates around the world to earnings reports from the biggest U.S. companies. The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower in midday ...
Read More »US inflation and consumer spending cooled in December 
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge eased further in December, and consumer spending fell — the latest evidence that the Fed’s series of interest rate hikes are slowing the economy. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose ...
Read More »Average long-term mortgage rate at lowest level in 4 months 
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell to its lowest level in more than four months, giving some relief to homebuyers faced with higher prices for just about everything, including homes. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average ...
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