Pending home sales increased in December for the first time in more than six months, a sign that falling mortgage rates are bringing buyers back into the housing market. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) pending sales index, which tracks signed contracts to buy homes rather than closed sales, increased by 2.5% in December from […]
The U.S. economy showed surprising resilience at the end of 2022, weathering rampant inflation, higher interest rates, and geopolitical uncertainty, even as questions persist over whether growth will turn negative in the year ahead. Fourth-quarter gross domestic product, which represents the sum of all goods and services produced between October and December, rose at a […]
Retail spending declined in December at the fastest pace of 2022, ending the holiday shopping season on a sour note, as higher interest rates, persistent inflation, and concerns about an economic slowdown weighed on American consumers. Retail sales, which include purchases at stores, restaurants and online, declined a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in December from the […]
The World Bank has substantially cut its global growth forecasts for 2023, citing broadly worsening economic conditions since its previous projections made in mid-2022. The group’s latest Global Economics Prospect report saw large downgrades for most of the world’s advanced economies and cut its global growth forecast nearly in half. Current projections show the world […]
Demand for workers held nearly steady at historically high levels in November, suggesting that the labor market remained strong heading into 2023, despite higher interest rates and concerns about an impending recession. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for the month showed that there were nearly 10.5 million job openings, down slightly from […]
