The recession in the U.S. manufacturing sector that began in the second half of 2019 has been sharply exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, new proprietary data from RSM shows. Significantly more middle market manufacturers reported losses to U.S. revenue and greater disruptions to operations and their ... READ MORE >
coronavirus
Modeling the spread of the coronavirus: Another difficult milestone
The coronavirus outbreak continues its relentless spread from population centers on the coasts to the center of the country, even as newly reported cases overall decline. As the three figures below indicate, the number of new cases in the United States has dropped from a peak of 32,000 per day on April ... READ MORE >
Retail lessons from the RSM US Middle Market Business Index
While it’s no surprise that middle market retailers were hard hit by fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, proprietary RSM data underscores this vulnerability. Some 44% of U.S. retailers lost domestic revenue because of the pandemic, while nearly half experienced disruptions to U.S. operations or ... READ MORE >
COVID-19 pandemic drives largest drop in U.S. factory production on record
Total industrial production in the United States fell 11.2% in April from a month earlier, according to numbers released Friday by the Federal Reserve. That decline is the largest monthly drop in the 101-year history of the industrial production index, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic ... READ MORE >
U.S. retail sales: April really was the cruelest month
John Maynard Keynes’ paradox of thrift is increasingly becoming a much larger part of the economic narrative in the United States as households prepare for an extended economic slowdown, elevated unemployment and loss of income. During March, the U.S. savings rate jumped to 13.1%, which did not bolster ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims, state by state: 11 now have a million or more claims since coronavirus outbreak
There are now 11 states with a million or more newly unemployed people and 11 other states with at least a half-million added to the unemployment rolls. That brings the total to 36.5 million claims of newly unemployed persons processed by the state employment agencies in the eight weeks since the outbreak ... READ MORE >
Elevated first-time and continuing jobless claims show mounting stress in the labor market
Stress in the domestic labor market continued to intensify as 2.98 million individuals filed first-time jobless claims for the week ending May 9, bringing the total to 36 million during the coronavirus pandemic. Those filing continuing claims for the week ending May 2 jumped to 22.83 million, according to ... READ MORE >
April U.S. Consumer Price Index: Another whiff of pandemic-caused deflation
This is what demand destruction looks like. The 0.8% decline in the Consumer Price Index in April, announced on Tuesday, should serve as a cautionary tale to those espousing dead dogma around risks to the outlook linked to inflation. The U.S. economy is absorbing a significant demand shock, and April’s ... READ MORE >
Global M&A nosedives, and what comes next is still in question
Global mergers and acquisitions plunged in April as companies worked through business challenges resulting from the coronavirus. Through April and the first part of May, the total value of announced deals was $207 billion, according to Bloomberg, beginning what is expected to be a year over year decline ... READ MORE >
A bright spot amid the economic wreckage of coronavirus: apartment rental payments
While many businesses remain closed and the country experiences record levels of unemployment, apartment owners can take some solace that tenants are still making their rent payments. On Friday, the National Multifamily Housing Council released its Rent Payment Tracker, and reported that 80.2% of ... READ MORE >