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NEWS ABOUT: economic indicators

Economy Is Only Recovering on Paper

(Newser) - If you’re the glass-half-full type, recent economic indicators look good: Unemployment fell last month, the savings rate is up, and productivity hit a 6-year high. But that same data proves that ordinary people aren’t likely to feel the good vibrations anytime soon, the Washington Post reports. “It's... More »

GDP Slows Descent, Falls Just 1%

(Newser) - The US economy contracted in the second quarter, but it was a mild decline that beat analyst estimates, Bloomberg reports. GDP fell 1%, less than the 1.5% economists predicted, and a heck of a lot less than the 6.4% and 5.4% drops seen in the two previous... More »

Home Sales Take Biggest Jump in 8 Years

(Newser) - New home sales jumped 11% in June, the biggest gain in eight years, the Commerce Department announced today, as the supply fell to its lowest level in more than a decade. With mortgage rates and prices staggeringly low—the median home price fell 12%—buyers came out of the woodwork.... More »

Major Companies Believe a Rebound Cometh

Firms split on whether the bottom has been reached

(Newser) - Some major companies are slowly becoming optimistic about the economy again, the Wall Street Journal reports. Delta Airlines says seat sales are almost at the level they were a year ago and United Technologies says its decline in orders is stabilizing. Intel is among the most upbeat, saying "the... More »

Men's Skivvy Sales Spell More Trouble

Stimulus package or not, underwear metric indicates downturn

(Newser) - More bad news, this time from the men’s underwear department. One of former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan’s favorite metrics for predicting changes in consumer spending was the sales of men’s skivvies, the Huffington Post reports. It seems that sales are projected to decline 2.3% this year,... More »

This Rally May Be the Real Deal

Positive indicators, better policy, historical benchmarks; the time is right for a bottom

(Newser) - The tentative rally on Wall Street is reason enough for one economist to feel hopeful: "I’m ready to take another shot at calling the bottom," writes Michael Mandel in BusinessWeek. Since (apparently) bottoming out March 9, stocks have risen 20%, and the reasons behind the climb are... More »

Unemployment Leaps to 8.1%

(Newser) - Unemployment hit 8.1% in February, its highest level since late 1983, as employers cut 651,000 jobs, the government said today. That’s worse than the 7.9% analysts predicted, thanks to revised numbers from January and December that were much worse than originally reported. December’s revised loss... More »

GDP Drop Worst in 26 Years

Worse than anticipated

(AP) - The US economy contracted at a staggering 6.2% pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in more than a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into recession. That's drastically worse than the 3.8% the government originally estimated, and the 5.... More »

US Consumer Spending Falls Yet Again

1% drop greater than forecast; 6 straight months of decline

(Newser) - Consumer spending fell in December to finish off its worst year since 1961, Bloomberg reports. Purchases fell 1%, topping analyst estimates of a 0.9% decline. It was the record sixth consecutive month spending has fallen, and that streak may get longer, one economist predicted. Thanks to nearly 2.6... More »

New Jobless Claims Leap Past Estimates

Did you ever suspect they'd go down? Me either

(AP) - The number of new claims for jobless benefits jumped more than expected last week, as companies continue to cut jobs at a furious pace. The Labor Department reported today that initial claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 589,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 527,000 the previous week.... More »

US Economy Isn't as Bad as 1982 ... Just Yet

But downturn will definitely get worse, and only big stimulus will limit its depth

(Newser) - We’ve heard a lot lately about how this recession is the worst since the 1980s, or even since the Great Depression, so David Leonhardt, in the New York Times, tries to get some perspective. Using jobs data as his main metric, Leonhardt finds things aren’t nearly as bad... More »

Retail Sales Take Steep Plunge

Fall twice as far as anticipated

(Newser) - Retail sales fell more than twice as much as analysts predicted in December, thanks to mounting job losses and reduced credit, Bloomberg reports. Sales fell 2.7%, extending the longest string of declines on record to 6 consecutive months. Purchases excluding automobiles slid 3.1%. “Consumers are pulling back,... More »

US Lost Half-Million Jobs in Nov.

Biggest drop in 34 years

(Newser) - November saw 553,000 Americans lose their jobs, according to a Labor Department non-farm payrolls report, the steepest drop in 34 years. The number exceeded even the grimmest predictions in Bloomberg’s survey of 73 analysts. “The labor market capsized in November,” said one economist. “The financial... More »

US Already a Year Into Recession: Economists

Non-traditional measurement based on employment, other statistics

(Newser) - The US economy has been in a recession since employment peaked in December 2007, a committee of economists declared today. However, MarketWatch notes, the private National Bureau of Economic Research rejects the traditional metric that recession is defined as consecutive quarters of GDP decline, opting instead to look at four... More »

Consumer Prices Dive 1%, Biggest Drop in 61 Years

Oil's record decline leads to 1% overall drop

(AP) - Consumer prices in the United States plunged by the largest amount in the past 61 years in October as gasoline prices dropped by a record amount. The Labor Department said today that consumer prices fell by 1% last month, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back to February... More »

Unemployment Hits 14-Year High; Stocks Flat

To be fair, they've already had the worst two-day stretch since 1987

(Newser) - The economy lost 240,000 jobs in October, bringing unemployment to 6.5%, its highest rate since 1994. It was the 10th-straight negative month, bringing the year’s losses to 1.2 million. But the staggering report did little to move the needle on Wall Street, as the Dow actually... More »

Dow Surges Despite GDP Dip

Drop isn't as bad as feared, and rate cuts abroad cheer US traders

(Newser) - Stocks jumped at the opening bell, as international rallies helped offset a shrinking US economy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Gross domestic product shrank at a seasonally adjusted 0.3% annual rate from July to September; the not-as-bad-as-feared figure sent the Dow up 201 points at the open before dipping... More »

Consumer Confidence Hits All-Time Low

Signs point to drop in consumer spending, deepening downturn

(Newser) - Consumer confidence hit a record low in October, Bloomberg reports, raising the specter that spending will slow significantly. The Conference Board’s index dove to 38, the lowest reading since the metric’s inception in 1967, and far worse than analysts expected. With the stock markets volatile, home equity deteriorating,... More »

Stocks Trip Over Bad Econ Data

Good results from Coke, JP Morgan drowned out

(Newser) - The bears came out on Wall Street this morning, sending the Dow down 181 at the bell, as a host of negative economic reports drowned out some positive third-quarter results. Retail sales were worse than expected in September, and several other indexes showed manufacturing activity down. The S&P and... More »

Global Stocks Down as US Job Losses Rattle Markets

Employers may have shed 75,000 posts

(Newser) - Stocks fell in Europe and Asia today, marking the worst weekly slump in 6 years, according to the MSCI World Index. Markets were depressed by grim news expected in the latest US employment report due out this morning, reports Bloomberg. Economists predict figures will show a US loss of 75,... More »

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