Economy/Ecommerce

The Federal Reserve released its latest Beige Book, which said that “economic activity generally expanded at a modest to moderate pace since the previous Beige Book,” but—and this is a fairly large but—”many Districts noted rising gasoline prices and fiscal policy as having a negative effect on consumer sales.”

The parade of residential real estate revival numbers continues: CoreLogic reported on Tuesday that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased year-over-year by 9.7 percent in January 2013.

Forbes magazine published its 27th annual list of billionaires on Monday, with most of the usual suspects populating the tip-top of the list, such as Mexican communication mogul Carlos Slim Helu, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the Koch brothers all making appearances, though they fluctuate in position from year to year.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that U.S. personal income took a hit in January. At $505.5 billion, income was down 3.6 percent for the month, the largest drop in about 20 years.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that real U.S. GDP was up during the fourth quarter of 2012, as opposed to the contraction reported in the bureau’s preliminary GDP estimate a few weeks ago.

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released, all three headline composites ended 2012 with strong gains.

Ahead of Tuesday’s Case-Shiller numbers, Lender Processing Services released its LPS Home Price Index report, which is based on December 2012 residential real estate transactions. According to the index, U.S. home prices were up 0.1 percent in December compared with November, and up 5.8 percent year-over-year.

Gas prices did something a little unusual over the weekend: they went down slightly. According to AAA, Saturday’s national average was down a 10th of a cent per gallon compared with Friday, and Sunday’s average was down a bit more compared with Saturday, from $3.78 to $3.777 a gallon.