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There are a lot of good things to say, and few bad things to say, about the November employment numbers that were published Friday morning. Employers added 266,000 jobs, a blockbuster number even after accounting for the one-time boost of about 41,000 striking General Motors workers who returned to the job. Revisions to previous months’ job counts were positive. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, matching its lowest level since 1969. Other numbers were less evocative of a boom time. The share of the adult population in the labor force ticked down, and average hourly earnings continued growing at...

Jobless claims unexpectedly plunged in the week ended November 23, indicating that the American labor market remains strong. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 15,000 to 213,000, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Economists had been looking for a smaller decline. The prior week’s claims were revised up by 1,000 to 228,000.

Food tester was first rushed to hospital, and doctors believe there was exposure to time-delayed poison  An inside source says President Trump’s food taster became ill after ingesting an unnamed substance, which is why the president made a surprise hospital visit on Saturday.In an official statement, the White House said President Trump visited the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, for  a “quick exam and labs.”The hospital visit was not listed on the president’s public schedule, according to media outlets which indicated that the visit was not a routine physical exam.Additionally, the inside source said his food taster was rushed to the facility...

The most surprising thing about the latest unemployment report isn’t that the rate dropped to the lowest level since December 1969. It’s that unemployment wasn’t supposed to get anywhere near that low under President Trump. At least, not if you believed mainstream Keynesian economists. The economy created 136,000 jobs in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of businesses. The separate household survey, which is used to track unemployment, showed that the number of unemployed dropped by 275,000. Not only did the job market pull 275,000 off the unemployment line last month, it pulled more than 100,000 who...

Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Private-sector hiring increased by approximately 135,000 jobs in September, beating projections but indicating a slowing in growth, a report by ADP Research in collaboration with Moody's Analytics said Wednesday. Analysts said the number and three-month average is down from this point last year, suggesting that U.S. job expansion is losing steam. The report comes ahead of employment figures that will be released in the Employment Situation Summary by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. Economists interviewed by Dow Jones had anticipated 125,000 hires in September, but both numbers are down from the 157,000 hired in...

China’s exports fell unexpectedly in August, as the trade war with the United States continued to hit the world’s second-largest economy. Shipments fell by 1 per cent in the month after growing 3.3 per cent in July in dollar terms, and below the 2.1 per cent growth expected by analysts in a Bloomberg poll. Imports in the month dropped by 5.6 per cent, leaving a trade surplus of US$34.84 billion, according to China’s General Administration of Customs. July’s expansion now seems like an anomaly, likely driven by front-loading as new tariffs of 15 per cent on about US$110 billion of...

U.S. stock index futures moved higher on Friday morning as data showed U.S. job creation was stronger than expected in April. Dow futures rose 112 points, indicating a gain of about 110 points at the open, following the release of the better-than-expected jobs report. The Nasdaq Composite is set to open 40 points higher, while futures on the S&P 500 were also higher. The U.S. added a robust 263,000 new hires in April while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, the lowest since December 1969, according to a Labor Department report Friday. The nonfarm payroll growth far outpaced Wall Street...

The Nasdaq on Friday closed at a record, and the S&P 500 narrowly missed its own, as investors bought stocks following an April employment report that came in hotter than expected, underscoring consistent labor-market strength. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP advanced 127.22 points, or 1.6%, at 8,164, buoyed by gains in e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc., which helped the technology-laden index to carve out a fresh all-time high and recover from a three-session stumble. The S&P 500 index climbed 28.12 points, or 1%, at 2,945.64, barely missing its own closing record at 2,845.83. All 11 S&P 500 sectors finished in positive...

What earnings recession? Heading into the current first-quarter reporting season, earnings for S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies were expected to fall 3.9% year-over-year, the first quarterly decline since 2016, according to FactSet. But with 46% of S&P 500 companies having reported first-quarter results as of Friday, earnings are expected to decline only 2.3% year-over-year. Plus 77% of companies that have reported so far this season have topped their earnings estimates, according to FactSet. “Despite fears of an outright ‘earnings recession’ (two quarters of negative year-over-year earnings), actual results have exceeded consensus estimates by 4.3% thus far, well above the historical average...

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/26/gdp-q1-2019-first-read.html

Friday's data was the first look at how the economy fared during the longest government shutdown in history. The federal government ceased operations for 35 days between late December and Jan. 25 amid a standoff between the Trump administration and congressional leaders over funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Investors were closely watching out for the report as they looked for more confirmation that a recession may not be in the cards over the short term. The report "helps offset fears of slowing global growth," said Alec Young, managing director of global market research at FTSE Russell. "At...

The long-awaited first read on Q4 GDP has just come out, with results better than expected: +2.6%, whereas analysts had been pivoting right around that 2.0% figure ahead of the release. The historically strong Q3 results were revised upward in its third and final headline: 3.5%. Even though it’s too early to take the long view of 2018 GDP as a whole, this 2.6% number joins the 2.2%, 4.2% and now 3.5% from the previous quarter to put preliminary GDP at 3.125%, or above 3% for the first time since prior to the Great Recession a decade ago. That this...

Credit: iStock U.S. consumer confidence improved in February, topping all forecasts and snapping a three-month losing streak, after the U.S. government ended the longest shutdown in the country's history and the trade war edged toward a resolution. The confidence index climbed to 131.4 from 121.7, the New York-based Conference Board said in a report Tuesday. That compared with a Bloomberg survey of economists that called for a rise to 124.9. The measure gauging Americans' views on present conditions rose to an 18-year high while consumer expectations posted the largest monthly gain since 2011. Key insights • The increase comes amid...

The U.S. trade deficit fell to $49.3 billion in November, the first decline after five straight months of increases. But on a year-over-year basis, the gap rose by 10.4 percent. The U.S trade deficit with its global partners fell in November for the first time after five straight months of increases as the shortfall with China and several other countries declined. Tightening the balance between imports and exports has been a major goal of the Trump administration, which last year started levying tariffs in an effort to close the gap. A release from the government Wednesday showed the gap had...

You wouldn’t know it by reading, watching, or listening to the #NeverTrump mainstream media (MSM), but the president is cruising to a 2020 victory, and it won’t matter who stumbles first over the line in the all-out Democrat war to secure the Socialist Party’s nomination. While whomever the Democrats nominate will be preaching freebies and other irresponsible economic policies, POTUS Donald Trump will have a solid four-year record of massive job and economic growth unrivaled since the days of Ronald Reagan. As you likely know, job creation figures for the month of January were announced last week and they were...

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro raised the minimum wage by 300 percent to 18,000 bolivars per month, around $6.70, as part of routine wage hikes in an economy suffering from annual inflation approaching 2 million percent.

The legal minimum wage for New York City employers with 11 or more workers rose more than 15 percent on Dec. 31, 2018, to $15 per hour from $13, giving fast-food, retail and other employees a bump in pay. But some New York City restaurant owners say the latest minimum wage hike is forcing them to cut workers' hours just to stay afloat. It's the third rise in the city's base wage since Dec. 31, 2016, when it went to $11 an hour. The latest increase is part of a plan that phases in minimum wage hikes across New York...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers went on a hiring spree in December, adding a surprising 312,000 jobs and providing a dose of reassurance about the economy after a turbulent few months on Wall Street.The job gains reported Friday by the Labor Department came despite a trade war with China, a global slowdown and a partial government shutdown now entering its third week.The nation’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9 percent last month, but that, too, was considered a positive sign, reflecting an increase in Americans beginning to look for work. And average hourly pay improved 3.2 percent from a year...

unemployment remains the same but: wages growth increasing at 3.1% annually U6 at 7% i did not hear the job participation rate...

U.S. industry expanded again in September despite the impact of Hurricane Florence. The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that industrial production, which includes output at factories, mines and utilities, rose 0.3 percent last month. It was the fourth straight increase. The Fed said that Florence reduced September output growth by less than 0.1 percentage points. Over the past year, industrial production rose 5.1 percent. The increase was slightly higher than economists had expected and offered more evidence that the U.S. economy is in good health. Overall economic growth reached 4.2 percent from April through June, fastest in nearly four years. The...