Category Archives: Weekly Financial News

The Fed May Cause Another Recession

Financial FAQs EPI.org A headline reporting on Fed Chairman Powell’s latest testimony to congress said the Fed will battle inflation until it is subdued, sounding more hawkish because January numbers for retail spending, employment and inflation were stronger than expected. … Continue reading

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Housing Market Is Recovering

The Mortgage Corner Census.gov Real estate is the industry most affected by rising interest rates, so it’s encouraging to see that housing sales are showing signs of a revival. Both new-home and pending home sales jumped in January, even with … Continue reading

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Consumer Incomes/Sentiment Still Rising

Financial FAQs BEA.gov January consumer spending rose 1.8 percent (orange bar in graph) in a month, while personal incomes rose 0.6 percent in the BEA’s latest personal income (PCE) report out Friday. This is one more headache for the Fed … Continue reading

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Q4 Growth Continues

BEAgdp Last year is ending in better shape than it began. Instead of shrinking in the first two quarters of 2022, US GDP growth has turned positive in Q3 and Q4, as portrayed in the above graph of real, or … Continue reading

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Will It Be a Soft Landing?

The Mortgage Corner There is a growing optimism Jerome Powell’s Fed can engineer a so-called soft landing with its restrictive monetary policies, which means avoid an outright recession. Why? First quarter 2023 GDP growth is predicted to be positive following … Continue reading

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Retail Sales Show Rising Abundance

Popular Economics Weekly FREDretailsales Now we have retail sales also surging in January, on the heels of a terrific unemployment report and Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate of higher first quarter economic growth. Retail sales that make up half of consumer … Continue reading

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New Year GDP Looking Better

Financial FAQs AtlantaFedGDPNow Because of January’s gangbusters unemployment report of 517,000 new payroll jobs and the unemployment rate decline to an all-time low of 3.4 percent, consensus is growing that the US may avoid a recession. One indicator of a … Continue reading

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What Interest Rates Are Declining?

The Mortgage Corner FRED30yr The average 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgage has declined almost one percent since November 2022 to the current 6.12 percent as of February 2023, per the St. Louis Fed. The housing sector has been a leading … Continue reading

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To A Better State of the Union

Financial FAQs Reuters Reuters just reported that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday said she saw a path for avoiding a U.S. recession, with inflation coming down significantly and the economy remaining strong, given the strength of the U.S. … Continue reading

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No More Inflation Worries, Period

Popular Economics Weekly MarketWatch I said last week, the U.S. economy has done it again with stronger than predicted fourth quarter GDP growth. This week a record employment gain should shock most economists and professional prognosticators to their roots. Total … Continue reading

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