'Economy Watch' Podcast with Dees Stribling: Consumers More Confident
Consumers were more confident and out spending more last month, despite sluggish income growth and declining housing values.
Economy Watch: Initial Unemployment Claims Down, 4Q GDP Stands Pat
Unemployment claims for the week ending March 24 dropped by 5,000 to 359,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday, the lowest that particular number has been since April 2008, back in the days of crummy growth, but before the full-fledged Great Recession.
Economy Watch: Governments Out to Pop Oil Bubble
Citing British and American sources, as well as France’s Energy Minister Eric Besson, media reports said on Wednesday that the three nations seemed poised to deal with fuel prices in the coming weeks by releasing strategic oil stocks.
Economy Watch: Home Prices Still Moving Downward
The latest S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index was down 0.8 percent, representing a declining three-month moving average for November 2011 to January 2012, according to the rating agency on Tuesday.
Economy Watch: Bernanke Excites Markets
Bernanke said in a speech to the National Association for Business Economics spring conference that the U.S. economy might still need help to pick up the pace of job growth.
Economy Watch: New Home Sales Down in February
New home sales were down 1.6 percent in February to an annualized rate of 313,000 units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau on Friday.
'Economy Watch' Podcast with Dees Stribling: Housing Down, But With Signs of Improvement
The housing numbers were a little down this week, but there were glimmers of improvement.
Economy Watch: Jobless Claims Down, Lending Indicators Up
During the week ending March 17, initial unemployment claims were 348,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 353,000, and a four-year low, according to the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday.
Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Down a Notch
Existing home sales took an unexpected monthly dip in February, down 0.9 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday.
Economy Watch: Housing Starts Edge Down, Permits Edge Up
The residential market continued to be the main domestic economic story on Tuesday, with the Census Bureau and HUD reporting that housing starts in February were at an annualized rate of 698,000 units, a dip of 1.1 percent from January.