Tag: Federal Reserve

Consumer Prices Aren’t Budging Despite Wage Growth

Consumer prices remained unchanged for the third consecutive month amid rapid job creation and wage growth, signaling to the Federal Reserve Board that planned interest rate increases may not be necessary after all. The 12-month percent change in CPI in January, that is, the consumer inflation rate over the last […]

Five Things to Watch for in March Retail Sales Report

March Retail Sales report from the Commerce Department comes out on Friday. February’s report saw only a 0.1 percent increase in retail sales. The upside of that report was the warm weather leading to more sales while the downside was due to a delay in IRS tax refunds. March could […]

Income and consumption in January confirm strength of U.S. economy

Personal income and spending both rose by 0.5% in January, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported Friday. The figures indicate the American economy is improving as household income increases and consumers show regained confidence by buying more.   Friday’s figures show a sharp improvement over December, when spending rose by […]

Economic Growth Slow but Steady

Three consecutive months of job growth indicates that the economy has finally reached a point of stability, after gaining more jobs in the month of February. The private sector added 227,000 jobs with marked growth in professional services, health care and manufacturing and the unemployment rate was steady at 8.3 […]