The downward trend in new daily COVID-19 cases continues, but winter weather impacted economic activity and vehicle sales over the past two weeks though housing strengthened. Retail sales rise: Retail sales jumped in January, supported by the $600 stimulus checks issued early in the month in the $900 billion stimulus package signed into law at … Continued

The downward trend in new daily COVID-19 cases continues. Improving conditions are leading to rollbacks of restrictions, and economic activity and employment should improve as a result. For now, traditional jobless claims are seeing gradual declines, but pandemic assistance claims are growing, and 20.4 million people remain on some form of benefits. Joblessness remains high: … Continued

The downward trend in new daily COVID-19 cases continues. Improving conditions are leading to rollbacks of restrictions. Economic activity and employment should improve as a result. Job gains small: January only saw meager gains in jobs, but the declining trend in jobless claims affirm that January likely represented the transition from the worst of the … Continued

The downward trend in new daily COVID-19 cases continues, but new variants are raising concerns. The economy grew in the fourth quarter. Consumer spending slowed, savings grew, and consumer confidence improved. Economy grows: The first estimate of fourth quarter 2020 real GDP growth came in at 4.0% (annualized), less than the 4.2% expected. Based on … Continued

Little new information emerged from the Fed today as they issued their official statement following their first meeting of 2021. The biggest change in the official statement was acknowledging that “…  the pace of the recovery in economic activity and employment has moderated in recent months.” The Fed is clearly staying on course with its … Continued