Economy

A pending sale sign in front of a home in Miami. Getty Images Signed contracts to purchase previously owned homes fell 1.8% in July from June, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sky-high home prices have caused affordability to drop dramatically in the last several months. The median price of an existing home was

A home, available for sale, is shown on August 12, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty Images Sales of existing homes in July rose 2% from June to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 5.99 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. These sales figures are based on closings, so it

Federal Reserve officials at their July gathering made plans to pull back the pace of their monthly bond purchases likely before the end of the year, meeting minutes released Wednesday indicated. However, the summary of the July 27-28 Federal Open Market Committee gathering indicated that the central bankers wanted to be clear that the reduction,

First-time filings for unemployment insurance hit a pandemic-era low last week, a sign that the jobs market is improving heading into the fall despite worries over the delta Covid variant. Jobless claims for the week ended Aug. 14 totaled 348,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That was below the Dow Jones estimate for 365,000 and

Shoppers carry bags of purchased merchandise at the King of Prussia Mall, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, December 8, 2018. Mark Makela | Reuters Retail sales were expected to have fallen off in July, as consumers reacted to the delta variant of Covid and held off on online and vehicle purchases. Economists expect retail sales

Prospective home buyers arrive to tour a house for sale in Dunlap, Illinois. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images Borrowers backed away from the mortgage market last week, as higher interest rates chilled a recent revival in refinances. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less)

Shoppers in the U.S. cut back their purchases in July even more than expected as worries over the delta variant of Covid-19 dampened activity and government stimulus dried up. Retail sales for the month fell 1.1%, worse than the Dow Jones estimate of a 0.3% decline and below the upwardly revised 0.7% increase in June.

A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California. Mike Blake | Reuters The price of lumber has fallen sharply in the last few months, but apparently that has not been enough to take the pressure off homebuilders. Sentiment among single-family homebuilders dropped five points to 75 in August

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell adjusts his tie as he arrives to testify before a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on “The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress” on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 15, 2021. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters Shifting policy views amid unexpected economic data have opened the door

A key consumer sentiment reading saw a dramatic drop in early August as the delta variant of Covid-19 increased fears about the path of the economy, the University of Michigan said Friday. The consumer sentiment index tumbled to 70.2 in its preliminary August reading. That is down more than 13% from July’s result of 81.2

Initial jobless claims declined for the third consecutive week as the U.S. labor market continued its recovery from last year’s recession. New claims for jobless benefits totaled 375,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, matching estimates from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The reading for the previous week was revised upward by 2,000 to

Prices that Americans pay for everyday goods and services rose in July as pent-up demand for travel and restaurants kept inflation hot, but jumped about as much as economists had expected. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its consumer price index rose 5.4% in July from a year earlier, in line with June’s figure and

Robert Kaplan Hailey Lee | CNBC Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said Wednesday that the central bank should begin to taper its monthly purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities in October. His view that the Fed ought to begin cutting back on its $120 billion per month purchases is perhaps the most ambitious

The number of job openings in the U.S. economy jumped to more than 10 million in June, the highest on record, as the U.S. labor market continues a choppy recovery from last year’s economic shutdowns, the Labor Department said Monday. There were 10.1 million open jobs on the final day of June, the report said,

Richard Clarida Scott Mlyn | CNBC Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said Wednesday the central bank is likely to hit its economic targets by the end of next year and start raising interest rates again in 2023. While he said the jobs market still has to recover, Clarida noted that inflation is tracking to

Initial claims for unemployment insurance edged lower last week, meeting Wall Street expectations, while longer-term unemployment signs showed improvement, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time filings for benefits dipped to 385,000 for the week ended July 31, a decline of 14,000 from the previous week as the jobs market remains essentially in a holding pattern

Hiring rose in July at its fastest pace in nearly a year despite fears over Covid-19’s delta variant and as companies struggled with a tight labor supply, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 943,000 for the month while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A man hands his resume to an employer at the 25th annual Central Florida Employment Council Job Fair at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. More than 80 companies were recruiting for over a thousand jobs. Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Images The unemployment fell to 5.4% as the economy added 943,000 jobs in July, with