New Housing Mkt Stays Hobbled; Layoffs Limited
By Denny Gulino WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – While hope for a significant rebound in new-home starts was again deferred Thursday, initial claims for jobless benefits continued the year’s trend of improvement, reinforcing the view that full employment may not have reached its potential peak in this cycle of expansion. The pace of housing starts did not […]
US PRODUCTIVITY SURGE INTERRUPTS WEAK L-T TREND
By Denny Gulino WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – A tantalizingly large jump in productivity growth reported Wednesday served more to illustrate its long-term path of weakness than promise more of the same for a productivity-starved U.S. economy. The quarterly increase of a 2.9% growth rate was the product of the second-quarter surge in economic growth, the 4.1% […]
US July Jobs Healthy, Not Gangbusters; Payrolls +157k
WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – July’s U.S. jobs report was healthy though below expectations, with payrolls up 157,000 after seasonal adjustment, over-the-year’s wages up a mediocre 2.7% and a labor participation rate stuck at 62.9%, the Labor Department reported Friday. The strongest jobs category was the one that most directly reflects the vigor of the overall economy, […]
ECB’S DRAGHI KEEPS ‘AS LONG AS NECESSARY’; TRADE CLOUDS FORECASTS
By Laurie Laird LONDON (MaceNews) – Eurozone inflation is on track to accelerate by year end, despite a recent downturn in a range of leading indicators, but trade tensions add a new degree of uncertainty to forecasting, according to the president of the European Central Bank Thursday. Mario Draghi delivered a rather upbeat economic outlook, […]
FED’S BEIGE BK: 10 DISTRICTS WITH MODERATE-MODEST GROWTH
WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is an excerpt of the summary of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book survey of economic conditions in the 12 regional Fed bank districts, published Wednesday and assembled by the Boston district bank: Overall Economic Activity Economic activity continued to expand across the United States, with 10 of the 12 Federal […]
FED’S POWELL KEEPS SENDING UNWELCOME MESSAGES
By Denny Gulino WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Tuesday successfully avoided waking up the markets with any unexpected blockbuster observations yet his message was as profound as it was unwelcome, that until Congress tackles fundamental challenges that bear on productivity growth, there isn’t going to be any surge in wages. Powell had […]
FED’S POWELL: RATE HIKE ANOTHER ROUTINE MOVE
By Denny Gulino WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Wednesday, in a generally soothing news conference, stressed his “practical” approach to rate hikes, keeping pace with a strengthening “solid” economy while being careful not to do too much. He confirmed that he will indeed begin holding a news conference after every Federal Open […]
MAY U.S. BUDGET DEFICIT $146.79 BLN; INDIVIDUAL TAX RECEIPTS STILL UP YTD
By Denny Gulino WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – Anyone wondering about the early effects of the new tax code could see in Tuesday’s U.S. Treasury report on the monthly budget that corporate taxes are indeed going down by a lot more than taxes collected from individuals. The May deficit was $146.798 billion, the third widest deficit for […]
KIM JUNG ON APPEARS TO BE THE BIG WINNER
By Leslie Shaffer SINGAPORE (MaceNews) – North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un appears to have been the big winner after the end of his historic summit with U.S. President Trump in Singapore this week, analysts have said. Trump and Kim signed a document at the conclusion of their talks, which appeared to have four key […]
FOMC Minutes: ‘Temporary” 2%+ Inflation ‘Consistent’
“It was also noted that a temporary period of inflation modestly above 2 percent would be consistent with the Committee’s symmetric inflation objective and could be helpful in anchoring longer-run inflation expectations at a level consistent with that objective.” The following is an excerpt of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes of its May 1-2 […]