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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. manufacturing output unexpectedly fell in January, recording its biggest drop in more than 4-1/2 years, as cold weather disrupted production in the latest indication the economy got off to a weak start this year. Though consumer sentiment was steady in early February, there are worries the persistent and widespread harsh weather could dampen the morale of households, whose budgets are being stretched by soaring heating bills. "The big question is whether the U.S. economy is slowing significantly or whether it is merely going through a soft patch caused by extreme weather. The evidence points to the...

Forget about the 1 percent versus the 99 percent. It’s really more like the 0.000001 percent versus everybody else. A tiny group — mostly comprising the Obama White House, a bunch of Washington Democrats, progressive economists, and the media elite — continues to fixate on income inequality as America’s greatest challenge. Most everybody else, the 99.999999 percent, sees things differently. Surveys continue to show Americans most worried about jobs and economic growth, not the income gap between the top and bottom. It’s a rational view given new employment data from the government. The January jobs report showed only 113,000 net...

* The U.S. private sector created 175,000 jobs in January, slightly below the expectation of 180,000, while the data for December was revised lower to 227,000 from 238,000. December's data widely overshot a broader report from the Labor Department which showed just 74,000 jobs were created in December. The market-moving government report is due Friday.

The Affordable Care Act will reduce the number of full-time workers by more than two million in coming years, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday in the most detailed analysis of the law’s impact on jobs.

Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 610.66 pts or 4.18%, closing at 14,008.47. Toyota edged down by over 5%. Panasonic, Sharp and Hitachi will soon announce quarterly results. Nippon Paint tumbled 21% over the issuance of new shares.

2014 brought a role reversal of sorts for gold and equities, with the metal higher and stocks lower, in contrast to last year’s performance. With January drawing to a close, can gold hold its gains and will equities continue to fall? Technical charts may offer some clues, analysts said. As of 1:20 p.m. EST, gold for April delivery was $18.60 lower to $1,243.60 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange “Gold is returning to its historic role as a safe haven as we’re seen problems globally,” said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at Telvent DTN. “Equities...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose marginally last week, but the underlying trend suggested the labour market continued to steadily improve. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits ticked up 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 fewer applications received than previously reported.

It is becoming laughable to hear the Obama administration talk about a so-called “recovery.” Supposedly, this “recovery” started in June of 2009; however, in reality our economy is on life support and the latest jobs figures just confirm this horrible news. In the government’s December labor report, the nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent, which is our lowest rate since October of 2008. While this may be heralded as good news, it is truly disturbing. Unfortunately, only 74,000 new jobs were added last month, the worst job growth numbers since January of 2011. This is anemic job creation,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- McDonald's reported disappointing sales for its fourth quarter Thursday, as the world's largest hamburger chain saw fewer customers visit its restaurants. The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company says global sales slipped 0.1 percent at established locations. In the U.S., where it recently revamped its Dollar Menu to include items that cost a little more, the figure fell 1.4 percent.

"So many people – politicians, journalists, I'm afraid market analysts – sort of believe this story of an economics recovery going on around the world," Roger Nightingale, strategist at RDN Associates, told CNBC. "This economics recovery hasn't occurred. In fact, actually for the past 18 months people have been talking about it, the data is pretty flat. If anything, it's getting flatter." .... "The conventional response, among economists, is that the government must take action to boost domestic demand in the United States, with either monetary or fiscal stimulus, or by redistributing wealth," he said in a note, citing the...

A recent Gallup poll revealed that the number one problem facing America, according to those polled, is “the government.” Twenty-one percent listed this as the worst problem facing the nation. Rounding out the top five problems were the economy (18%), unemployment (16%), healthcare (16%), and government debt (8%). These poll results were dramatically out-of-sync with President Obama’s declaration that “income inequality” is this nation’s chief problem. Only 4% of the poll respondents agreed with his assessment. As one poll respondent explained, “my work hours have been cut and my health insurance canceled. My wife has been unemployed for three years....

It's not even financials season yet, but Nintendo is trying to lower expectations in advance. In a statement today, it's announced that it's reassessed unit sales for its flagship Wii U console, shaving hacking it down from 9 million for April 2013 - March 2014 to just 2.8 million -- less than a third of the original estimate. It's also less than the number of Wii Us that Nintendo sold in its launch year. That was 3.45 million, if you're counting.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp plans to reduce its global workforce of 107,000 by about 5 percent this year as the chipmaker, struggling with falling personal-computer sales, reprioritizes toward faster-growing areas, a company spokesman said on Friday. The announcement comes a day after Intel posted a fourth-quarter earnings report that did little to dispel concerns about a slowing PC industry. "This is part of aligning our human resources to meet business needs," spokesman Chris Kraeuter told Reuters on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Best Buy Co Inc (BBY) reported a drop in total revenue and sales at its established U.S. stores in the all-important holiday season, sending shares tumbling more than 30 percent in early trading. The retailer cited intense discounting by rivals, supply constraints for key products and weak traffic in December. Best Buy's report was the latest evidence that holiday sales at many U.S. retailers came at the expense of margins.

JCPenney is cutting 2,000 jobs and closing 33 stores as the battered department store seeks to revive revenue growth, the company announced Wednesday. The move will save about $65 million annually beginning in 2014, the company said. JCPenney, which has about 1,100 stores, has struggled to turn a profit since former CEO Ron Johnson was fired in April.

There was considerable weeping and gnashing of teeth over the December “Employment Situation” report released by the BLS on Friday. Analysts were expecting 200,000 new payroll jobs, but they got only 74,000. Some called the “bad” unemployment report a “statistical anomaly.” A quick look at the BLS Household Survey showed that, rather than being bad, December was actually a better-than-average month in President Obama’s “new normal” economy. This is not a huge accomplishment, given that “Obama’s new normal” comprises slow GDP growth, a stagnant jobs market, and falling real household incomes. However, the nation moved 133,000 jobs closer to full-time-equivalent*...

A few weeks after consumers finished unwrapping presents, a wave of retailers are gifting Wall Street with lumps of coal. On Monday, Lululemon Athletica and Express became the latest retailers to warn investors of disappointing earnings in the holiday quarter. These negative forecasts follow similar warnings last week from a range of retail companies, including American Eagle Outfitters and Zumiez. In response, Lululemon stock shed 16 percent and Express shares dropped about 2.5 percent. In a release Monday, Lululemon's CFO said the company had seen "traffic and sales trends decelerate meaningfully" since the beginning of January. Because of that, Lululemon...

Job creation stumbled in December, with the U.S. economy adding just 74,000 positions even as the Federal Reserve voted to take the first steps in eliminating its stimulus program. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent, below economist estimates and due primarily to continued shrinkage in the labor force. The labor force participation rate tumbled to 62.8 percent, its worst level since January 1978.

Hey Wall Street, California owes you one. The prolonged bull market has produced two banner years for (stock Market) capital gains in the state, with an even better year expected in 2014. The result has been surging capital gains tax revenues, which account for all of the surplus projected by Gov. Jerry Brown for the coming year.

At the end of 2013, after serving five years, Barack Obama is a complete failure as President, by his own standards, as reflected in his own words. How many times has President Obama told us that he is “fighting for the middle class”? But real median family income has been in a continuous downward spiral since he became President, actually falling more since the recession ended in the summer of 2009 according to the National Bureau of Economic Research than during the recession. That has added up by now to the middle class losing a month’s pay a year under...