Category Archives: Weekly Financial News

Retail Sales, Inflation, Interest Rates Rising

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs Gasoline prices pulled down February’s retail sales, falling 0.6 percent after rising 2.1 percent in January. But when excluding volatile autos and gasoline prices, sales rose 0.2 percent vs January’s very strong 1.1 percent. And control group sales, … Continue reading →

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Home Ownership Is Rising

Posted on March 14, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner An improving economy, multiple years of strong job growth and the notable increase in home values in most markets fueled a greater share of purchases from Generation X households over the past year, says the National Association … Continue reading →

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Strong Jobs Report = Rising Interest Rates

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly Economists are almost unanimous that the Fed will raise their short term rates at next week’s FOMC meeting. This is because total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 235,000 in February, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to … Continue reading →

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U.S. Will Badly Need Immigrants

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly For most of the past half-century, adults in the U.S. Baby Boom generation – those born after World War II and before 1965 – have been the main driver of the nation’s expanding workforce, reports the PEW … Continue reading →

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A Gangbusters Jobs Report Tomorrow?

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs It looks like tomorrow’s unemployment report could be the best of the New Year.  That’s because ADP’s February private payroll estimate is 298,000, a yuge number. This would make tomorrow’s jobs report the biggest gain since October 2015 … Continue reading →

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2017 Manufacturing Off To Good Start

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly What is happening with manufacturing? The ISM manufacturing index jumped 1.7 points in February to a 57.7 level that beats the consensus by 1.3 points. This is the strongest rate of monthly growth in composite activity since … Continue reading →

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Slower Q4 Growth, (But) Higher Consumer Confidence

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs The growth in the U.S. economy in the final quarter of Barack Obama’s presidency was left at 1.9 percent, held down by a bigger trade deficit even as consumer spending rebounded strongly. In fact, Q4 GDP growth slowed … Continue reading →

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Home Sales Reach 10-year High

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs Existing-home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 5.69 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That was 3.3 percent above an upwardly-revised 5.51 million in December and 3.8 percent higher than a year ago. … Continue reading →

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Mortgage Market Still Obstructs Lower Income Borrowers

Posted on February 20, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner Earlier this month, researchers at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center published some of their research on lending standards. Drawing on data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, they found that lower-credit applicants accounted for only … Continue reading →

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Housing Construction Boosted By Low Rates

Posted on February 16, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner Housing starts returned to trend, reports the National Association of Home Builders, dropping 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.246 million units, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and … Continue reading →

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