The Federal Reserve on Tuesday said its index of industrial production, a measure of output at factories, mines and utilities, rose last month as output continued to recover from the depths of the spring. Total production rose 1.1% in October, slightly above the consensus. … READ MORE >
Covid-19
CHART OF THE DAY: Retail sales rose 0.3% in October, the slowest increase in six months
Retail sales in the United States grew at a 0.3% monthly rate in October, slower than analysts’ expectations of 0.5% and the slowest rate in six months. … READ MORE >
Coronavirus update: A worsening emergency, as seen in five charts
It took nine days for the novel coronavirus to infect another million people, growing from 10 million on Nov. 6 to 11 million on Nov. 15. At the current rate of spread, the RSM model shows a million new cases every five days. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Darkness before the dawn in global auto manufacturing
Global auto production has declined 32% on a year-ago basis largely because of the combined impact of the global trade war and pandemic. But as dour that reality is, there are signs that the disruptions to global supply chains will be lifted. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Consumer Price Index shows little risk of inflation
The October Consumer Price Index was flat on the top line and in the core metric that excludes energy and food. … READ MORE >
Looking ahead: next steps for the economy after Pfizer’s promising vaccine news
Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech’s Monday announcement that their COVID-19 vaccine candidate has shown to be more than 90% effective in preliminary results from an ongoing trial is a much needed win in the fight against the pandemic. While significant challenges remain, we are likely now closer to the end of the pandemic than the beginning. … READ MORE >
Coronavirus update: Defining a national emergency
The spread of the coronavirus continues to accelerate. While it was taking about three to four weeks for the virus to spread to a million new people over the summer months, it took only 16 days for the case count to grow from eight million new infections on Oct. 11 to nine million on Oct. 27. It then took only 10 days for that figure to reach 10 million on Nov. 6. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Estimating unemployment during the pandemic
By adjusting the number of unemployed for the number of people who are not in the labor force but want a job, and the pandemic unemployment rate jumps to 8.0%, our analysis shows. … READ MORE >
U.S. employment report: Unequivocally strong numbers
The end of the 2020 census and the loss of its workers masked a robust 906,000 increase in private-sector payrolls in October that was far stronger than the implied figure of 638,000 would suggest. … READ MORE >
FOMC: Fed policy to remain steady amid economic uncertainty
The Federal Open Market Committee on Thursday kept its policy rate steady at a range between zero and 25 basis points and made little meaningful change to its policy statement. … READ MORE >