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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence fell to a nine-month low in November, clipped by rising prices and concern about the coronavirus. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dropped to a reading of 109.5, down from 111.6 in October. It was the lowest reading since the index stood at 95.2 in February. The survey was completed on Nov. 19 and would not include the ramifications of omicron, a new variant of the coronavirus that has begun to spread with few solid answers about the damage it might do to the U.S...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are doing the main thing that drives the U.S. economy — spending — but accelerating inflation is casting a pall. A raft of economic data issued Wednesday showed the economy on solid footing, with Americans' incomes rising and jobless claims falling to a level not seen since the Beatles were still together. The spike in prices for everything from gas to rent, however, will likely be the chief economic indicator Americans discuss over Thanksgiving Day dinner. The Commerce Department reported that U.S. consumer spend...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that President Joe Biden's spending proposals will address long-overdue U.S. infrastructure needs and prepare the country to meet future challenges. In remarks before the National Association for Business Economists, Yellen called on Congress to support the Biden administration's $3.5 trillion "Build Back Better" initiative that would expand the social safety net and attack climate change. She also urged support for a $1 trillion bipartisan bill to address more traditional i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fueled by vaccinations and government aid, the U.S. economy grew at a solid 6.5% annual rate last quarter in another sign that the nation has achieved a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession. The total size of the economy has now surpassed its pre-pandemic level. Thursday's report from the Commerce Department estimated that the nation's gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — accelerated in the April-June quarter from an already robust 6.3% annual growth rate in the first quarter of the y...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a solid 6.4% rate in the first three months of this year, setting the stage for what economists are forecasting could be the strongest year for the economy in possibly seven decades. The Commerce Department said Thursday that growth in the gross domestic product, the country's total output of goods and services, was unchanged from two previous estimates. The gain represented an acceleration from growth at a 4.3% rate in the fourth quarter. Economists believe GDP growth has accelerated even more in t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans increased their spending by 0.5% in April, a slowdown after a massive gain in March that had been powered by the distribution of billions of dollars in individual stimulus checks. Even with the pullback from a 4.7% surge in spending in March, the April increase provided further evidence that consumers are driving a strengthening recovery from the pandemic recession. The April gain was led by a 1.1% rise in spending on services, the sector that covers airline travel, hotels and restaurants — areas that were dev...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Along with daylight saving time, this weekend could bring some Americans fatter bank balances. Officials at the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service said Friday that processing of the new round of stimulus payments has already begun, with the aim of having the first payments start showing up in bank accounts this weekend. President Joe Biden signed the new $1.9 trillion rescue package on Thursday, the day after it won final passage in the House. The measure provides for payments to qualifying individuals of up t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Reserve survey of business conditions across the United States has found that economic activity was expanding at a modest pace in February. The Fed survey released Wednesday shows that the central bank's business contacts were expressing optimism last month about a stronger rebound as more COVID-19 vaccines are distributed. Reports on consumer spending and auto sales were mixed, while overall manufacturing showed moderate gains despite supply-side constraints, according to the Fed survey. The report, known as the b...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell underscored the U.S. economy's ongoing weakness Tuesday in remarks that suggested that the Fed sees no need to alter its ultra-low interest rate policies anytime soon. "The economic recovery remains uneven and far from complete, and the path ahead is highly uncertain," Powell said in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. Powell's comments are in contrast to the increasing optimism among many analysts that the economy will grow rapidly later this year. That outlook has also raised c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday the country was still in a “deep hole” with millions of lost jobs but that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan could generate enough growth to restore full employment by next year. Republican senators argued that Biden’s proposal was too expensive and they cited criticism from Larry Summers, a treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, that passage of the measure could run the risk of triggering runaway inflation. Summers also contended that Biden’s plan would... Full story
WASHINGTON (AP) — Janet Yellen, sworn in Tuesday as the nation's 78th Treasury secretary and the first woman to hold the office, said in a message to the department's 84,000 employees that they would play a major role in addressing the country's biggest economic challenges. "In addition to the pandemic, the country is also facing a climate crisis, a crisis of systemic racism and an economic crisis that has been building for fifty years," Yellen said in her message. "I believe our department can play a major role in addressing each of these c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Monday approved President Joe Biden's nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation's 78th treasury secretary, making her the first woman to hold the job in the department's 232-year history. Yellen, a former chair of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a 84-15 vote, becoming the third member of Biden's Cabinet to win confirmation. The 15 votes against her all came from Republicans. She is expected to play a key role in gaining congressional approval of Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a change of administrations, it looks like Harriet Tubman is once again headed to the front of the $20 bill. Biden press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put the 19th century abolitionist leader on the $20 bill. Obama administration Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had selected Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president, on the $20 bill. But Tubman's fate had been in doubt since the 2016 presidential campaign based on critical comments by t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it will keep buying government bonds until the economy makes "substantial" progress — a step intended to reassure financial markets and keep long-term borrowing rates low indefinitely. The Fed also reiterated after its latest policy meeting that expects keep its short-term benchmark interest rate near zero through at least 2023. The Fed has kept its key rate there since March, when it took a range of extraordinary steps to fight the pandemic recession by keeping credit flowing. In a ser...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Reserve survey of business conditions around the country found that economic activity in several regions slowed in November as coronavirus cases surged. The Fed report released Wednesday said that overall, the Fed's 12 regional banks characterized the economic expansion as "modest or moderate." But it noted that three Midwest regions and the Philadelphia region reported activity had begun to cool in early November as COVID-19 cases surged. Four districts reported "little or no growth" during November, while five o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is defending his decision to close down a number of emergency Federal Reserve loan programs at a time when coronavirus cases are surging. Democrats were unconvinced, however, saying that Mnuchin's actions are politically motivated and intended to remove tools that the Biden administration could use to support the economy. Mnuchin argued that the programs he decided not to extend into next year were being lightly utilized. He said the $455 billion allocated for those Fed loan programs could be...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied that he is attempting to limit the choices President-elect Joe Biden will have to promote an economic recovery by ending several emergency loan programs being run by the Federal Reserve. Mnuchin said his decision was based on the fact that the programs were not being heavily utilized. He said Friday that Congress could make better use of the money by re-allocating it in another direction to support grants to small businesses and extended unemployment assistance. "We're not trying to h...
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial production slowed to a modest increase of 0.4% in August, far weaker than the strong bounce back recorded in previous months when factories were coming back to life. The slight uptick followed gains of 3.5% in July and 6.1% in June, when the industrial sector knocked down by the pandemic began to rebound. For August, manufacturing rose 1% but mining, which includes oil and gas exploration, fell 2.5%, the Federal Reserve reported Tuesday. Production at the nation's utilities was off 0.4%. It's the fourth c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve announced a significant change Thursday in how it manages interest rates by saying it plans to keep rates near zero even after inflation has exceeded its 2% target level. The change means the Fed is prepared to tolerate a higher level of inflation than it generally has in the past. And it means that borrowing rates for households and businesses — for everything from auto loans and home mortgages to corporate expansion — will likely remain ultra-low for years to come. The new goal states that "foll...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve says that its Main Street Lending Program designed to help small and medium-sized companies get through the pandemic has managed to make just eight loans in its first month of operations. In its first report on the program, the Fed said Thursday it had provided $76.9 million in loans since it started operations July 6. That's just a sliver of the up to $600 billion the Fed has said it will provide to cash-strapped companies through the program. The largest loan, for $50 million, went to a Mount Pocono, P...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government incurred the biggest monthly budget deficit in history in June as spending on programs to combat the coronavirus recession exploded while millions of job losses cut into tax revenues. The Treasury Department reported Monday that the deficit hit $864 billion last month, an amount of red ink that surpasses most annual deficits in the nation's history and is above the previous monthly deficit record of $738 billion in April. That amount was also tied to the trillions of dollars Congress has provided to c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices fell 0.2% in June as food costs dropped sharply, offsetting a big increase in energy prices. The drop in the Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach consumers, followed a 0.4% gain in May, the Labor Department reported Friday. Wholesale prices have fallen in four of the past five months. The country has been pushed into a deep recession that is expected to lead to an unprecedented contraction of the economy in the April-June quarter. It is likely the downturn, t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials last month expressed concerns about the severity of the economic downturn triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, saying the drop in economic activity in the spring would likely be the steepest in the post-World War II period. The minutes of the June 9-10 discussions, which were made public Wednesday, show officials grappling with economic disruptions that had already occurred and noting the crisis was "not falling equally on all Americans." The minutes say that Fed officials discussed how the sharp r...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says the outlook for the U.S. economy is "extraordinarily uncertain" and the success of the recovery effort will depend in large part on the country's ability to contain the spread of the coronavirus. "A full recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it is safe to re-engage in a broad range of activities," Powell says in testimony he is scheduled to deliver Tuesday in an appearance with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin before the House Financial Services Committee. In the t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. services sector shrank for a second month in May as the coronavirus pandemic triggered shutdowns and layoffs around the country. Activity did rise from levels last month that had not been seen since the recession. The Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday that its service sector index stood at 45.4 last month, up slightly from an April reading of 41.8. Any reading below 50 signals that the service sector, where the majority of Americans work, is in contraction. The April decline broke a string of more than 1...
