Economy/Ecommerce
Economy Watch: Consumer Income Up, Spending Down
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that Americans’ personal income increased $43.7 billion, or 0.3 percent, in April compared with March.
Economy Watch: GDP Contracts in Q1
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor Real U.S. gross domestic product decreased at an annualized rate of 1 percent in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ second estimate on the metric, which was released on Thursday. In the fourth quarter of 2013, real GDP increased 2.6 percent. The second estimate is based on more complete source data than the “advance” estimate last month, which found that real GDP increased 0.1 percent. The new estimate reflected a downward revision in private inventory investment and an upward revision to imports (a subtraction from GDP) that were partly offset by…
Economy Watch: Home Values Still Rising, But Not As Fast
S&P Dow Jones Indices released the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (based on data through March), which showed that the 10-City and 20-City Composite Indices gained 0.8 percent and 0.9 percent respectively month-over-month.
‘Economy Watch’ Podcast with Dees Stribling: Housing’s Not as Robust
Housing’s not quite as robust as last year.
Economy Watch: New Home Sales See Uptick in April
Sales of new single-family houses came in at an annualized rate of 433,000 units in April, according to the Census Bureau and HUD.
Economy Watch: Existing Homes Sales Rise in April
The National Association of Realtors reported that total existing-home sales rose 1.3 percent in April to an annualized rate of 4.65 million units, compared with 4.59 million units in March.
Economy Watch: FOMC Mulls Monetary Policy Normalization
Monetary policy hasn’t been normal for quite a while now, and investors, economists and other observers have been wondering out loud when that’s going to change.
Economy Watch: Negative Equity Continues to Drop
Zillow has released its latest Negative Equity Report, which says that the national negative equity rate was 18.8 percent in the first quarter of 2014 (that is, the percentage of mortgaged owner-occupied homes with negative equity).
‘Economy Watch’ Podcast with Dees Stribling: Retail Sales Flat
Retail sales flat, but at least the weather’s good.
Economy Watch: E-Commerce Retail Continues to Expand
The Census Bureau reported that U.S. e-commerce retail sales for the first quarter of 2014, adjusted for seasonal variation, but not for price changes, was $71.2 billion, an increase of 2.8 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.