New filings for jobless benefits fell last week to 242,000 from 264,000, a sharp 8.3% drop, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. The fall off came after fraudulent claims in Massachusetts—which were confirmed by state officials—had inflated the top-line number in the prior weeks. On a ... READ MORE >
Tuan Nguyen
Retail sales rise as American consumers stay resilient
Retail sales rose by 0.4% in April following two consecutive months of declines, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday. While the top-line number came out lower than expected, spending on retail goods continued to show an underlying strength in April. The data should support the ... READ MORE >
Consumer sentiment drops as inflation expectations rise
Consumer sentiment in April plunged to its lowest level since November as views on both current economic conditions and expectations worsened, the University of Michigan reported on Friday. The top-line sentiment index dropped to 57.7 from 63.5 in April. The current conditions and ... READ MORE >
Canada added 41,400 jobs in April amid resilient labor market
Canada’s labor market remained resilient in April despite increasing recession fears. All key numbers released by Statistics Canada on Friday came in stronger than expected—maybe too strong for the Bank of Canada’s comfort as it tries to tame inflation. The jobs report should raise the chance of a rate ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims post largest increase in six weeks
Jobless claims last week rose back up to 242,000 after a brief one-week drop, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. The increase underscored the upward trend in new filings for jobless benefits as the labor market continued to soften. New claims have remained consistently above the pre-pandemic ... READ MORE >
Job openings fell in March as the labor market softened
Job openings fell to 9.6 million in March from almost 10 million in February, a clear sign that the labor market is softening as the economy slows down. Still, there were 1.6 openings available for each unemployed worker on the month, down only slightly from 1.7 in February, according to data ... READ MORE >
Canadian recession tracker: Preparing for landing
As the Bank of Canada tries to tame inflation and simultaneously guide the economy to a soft landing, most market participants are skeptical that it can pull off the feat. After months of steep interest rate increases, the higher borrowing costs are only beginning to be felt in Canada's real ... READ MORE >
Business spending on equipment falls more than expected
Orders and shipments of core capital goods that exclude defense and aircraft spending, a key measure of private business investment, both fell by 0.4% in March, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday. It is now clear that the nonresidential component of private investment has caught up ... READ MORE >
Consumer confidence drops to lowest level since July 2022
Consumer confidence in April dipped to the lowest level since last July, driven by the deterioration in economic expectations as recession concerns mount. The top-line confidence index in April fell to 101.3 from 104.0 in March, while the expectations index dropped sharply to 68.1 from 74.0, ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims rise amid labor market slowdowns
New filings for jobless benefits rose for the third straight week to a near 18-month high, adding more signs of a slowdown in the labor market, one of the last defenses against a recession. New claims, which are a proxy for layoffs, increased by 2.1% to 245,000 for the week ending April ... READ MORE >