Economy

Mortgage interest rates last week rose at the fastest pace in over a year, throwing cold water on already cooling demand. Total mortgage application volume was essentially flat for the week, rising just 0.5% according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan

Weekly jobless claims edged higher last week but rose less than expected for an economy struggling to shake off impacts from a pandemic that has been around now for nearly a year. The Labor Department on Wednesday reported that first-time filings for unemployment insurance in the week ended Feb. 27 totaled a seasonally adjusted 745,000,

Private payroll growth disappointed in February despite otherwise encouraging signs of economic growth, according to a report Wednesday from ADP. Companies added just 117,000 positions for the month, well below the 225,000 forecast from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The total also represented a sharp decline from the upward revised 195,000 jobs in January. The

A worker delivers groceries to a customer’s vehicle outside a Walmart Inc. store in Amsterdam, New York, on Friday, May 15, 2020. Angus Mordant | Bloomberg via Getty Images Walmart said Wednesday that it plans to back American manufacturers by spending an additional $350 billion over the next decade on items that are made, grown

Joggers pass the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. Erin Scott | Bloomberg | Getty Images While the Federal Reserve may not raise its benchmark interest rate for years, there are growing expectations it may tweak policy soon to address some of the recent tumult in the

David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder & Co-Executive Chairman, The Carlyle Group. David A. Grogan | CNBC Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein told CNBC on Thursday he believes the largest economic risk is high unemployment, not some areas of the stock market where valuations have become overheated. “I think on the whole, the stock market is not our biggest

A fresh round of government stimulus checks sent personal income up to its biggest monthly gain since April 2020 though inflation remained tame, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Personal income jumped 10% after 0.6% increase in December. That was even higher than the 9.5% Dow Jones estimate. The gain came from the issuance of $600

The number of individuals filing first-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, with a total of 730,000 new claims for the week ended Feb. 20, the Department of Labor reported. The unemployment rate has also been falling, dropping to 6.3% in January. Signs of improvement in the labor market may create the

Jobless claims fell sharply last week despite brutal winter storms that swept across Texas and other parts of the South, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled 730,000 for the week ended Feb. 20, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 845,000. That total represented a substantial decrease from the 841,000

A houseÕs real estate for sale sign shows the home as being Òunder contractÓ in Washington, DC, November 19, 2020. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images December is usually the slowest month for the housing market, but price gains didn’t slow down one bit in 2020. In fact, they rose at the fastest pace

US Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a press conference in Washington, DC, on December 11, 2019. Eric Baradat | AFP | Getty Images Inflation and employment remain well below the Federal Reserve’s goals, meaning easy monetary policy is likely to stay in place, central bank Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday. Despite a

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Source: The New York Stock Exchange Inflation expectations are detaching themselves from reality, meaning markets might be overplaying the rise in U.S. Treasury yields, according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. Global markets have been rattled in the last 24 hours after

First-time filings for unemployment insurance jumped last week in a sign of continuing strife for the labor market. New claims totaled 861,000, the highest level in a month and above the Dow Jones estimate of 773,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Markets moved little on the news, with stocks opening lower on Wall Street. The

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said a large stimulus package is still necessary to get the economy back to full strength, despite momentum suggesting that growth is off to a faster start than anticipated in 2021. In a CNBC interview, the lead economic official in the Biden administration said the $1.9 trillion proposal could

Consumers flocked to spend their stimulus checks in January, sending retail sales for the month up 5.3% in a blockbuster start to 2021, according to a government report Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting a rise of just 1.2%. Excluding autos, sales rose 5.9%, also far ahead of the 1% estimate in a

A contractor works on the basement of a home under construction in the Toll Brothers Regency at Palisades community in Charlotte, North Carolina. Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images Buyer demand for newly built homes continues to surge, and that is keeping builder confidence high even as building material prices climb. Builder sentiment rose

People count money at Macy’s Herald Square store in New York. Andrew Kelly | Reuters Total consumer debt rose to nearly $14.6 trillion as 2020 came to a close, pushed by a record-breaking rise for mortgages in the red-hot housing market, according to a Federal Reserve report Wednesday. Debt increased 1.4% for the final three

A woman carries Nike shopping bags at the Citadel Outlet mall, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Commerce, California, December 3, 2020. Lucy Nicholson | Reuters Aided by government stimulus checks, consumers are expected to have boosted their spending in January, and the trend is likely to continue to gain