Coronavirus infections in the United States have surged to new highs over the past week as the long-awaited third peak of its spread arrived well before the onset of winter. … READ MORE >
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CHART OF THE DAY: New home sales cool as inventory remains limited
New single-family home sales dropped 3.5% month over month as the robust market began to cool heading into the fall months. … READ MORE >
A recession like no other: Total vehicle miles traveled plummets to record lows
Total vehicle miles traveled dropped by an unprecedented 10% in the 12 months through August. In this lies an opportunity to improve the nation’s air quality and shore up its infrastructure. … READ MORE >
Manufacturing firms continued expansion in October
U.S. manufacturing activity reached its highest level in two years in October, according to IHS Markit’s Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index data released Friday. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: The race to find a coronavirus vaccine
Scientists have been working at a blistering pace to shorten the vaccine development cycle from years to months in order to get a COVID-19 vaccine to market. With more than 190 such vaccines in development, there are several leading the pack. Here’s the latest on these efforts, as of Oct. 15. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: What’s the real unemployment rate?
The official unemployment rate in our estimation noticeably understates what we call the pandemic unemployment rate, which we estimate is 9.2%. … READ MORE >
First-time jobless claims decline to 787,000, implying modest improvement
The pace of first-time claims for unemployment insurance declined to an elevated 787,000 for the week ending Oct. 17, strongly suggesting that the economy is slowing in the fourth quarter. … READ MORE >
Coronavirus update: The economic benefits of increased testing and tracing
As global cases of COVID-19 top 40 million and infections in the United States again breach 50,000 per day, the specter of a second wave in Europe and the United States hangs over the domestic economy. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Hedge funds are faring well, but there is a range
Hedge funds are faring well after years of lackluster results, but the returns have not been uniformly strong. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Anticipation of pandemic demand for single-family homes
Housing starts rose in September by 1.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.4 million, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday. … READ MORE >