Don’t miss these top money and investing features: These money and investing stories, popular with MarketWatch readers this past week, offer ideas about how to manage your financial portfolio at a time when doubts are growing about the extent to which economies can safely reopen as coronavirus cases rise. INVESTING …
Read More »Economic Report: The fun stuff is getting more expensive during the pandemic
The fun stuff is getting more expensive during the pandemic. Yes, U.K. consumer price index growth slowed to 0.8% in April from 1.5% in March, which was a slight bit weaker than the 0.9% growth rise in a FactSet-compiled economist poll. A drop in fuel prices had the biggest impact. …
Read More »Market Extra: ECB’s emergency response to coronavirus economic crunch applauded — but more help likely to be needed
To the European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde’s relief actions did speak louder than words. The question for investors is whether more action is in store this week. ECB policy makers, who will hold a virtual policy meeting on Thursday, have taken a number of emergency measures since their last …
Read More »Economic Report: Unemployed workers applying for jobless benefits seen topping 25 million
The record surge in suddenly unemployed Americans likely grew by another 4 million last week to push the total to 25 million or more since the coronavirus pandemic shut down large parts of the U.S. economy a month and a half ago. Initial jobless claims in the seven days running …
Read More »The Economic Consequences of the Housing Crisis In California
California, once known as the land of golden dreams, has become a housing nightmare. The housing crisis in California is getting worse. According to a statewide survey that was conducted earlier in 2019, a majority of California residents said that one of the biggest problems in their region was lack …
Read More »Economic Report: Jobless claims might top 5 million for third straight week, push unemployment to 15%
Some 5 million Americans likely applied for jobless benefits for the third week in a row in mid-April as the coronavirus outbreak took an even bigger bite out of the U.S. economy, pushing the unemployment rate to around 15% unofficially. Nearly 17 million people have already filed new jobless claims …
Read More »Economic Report: U.S. manufacturers see biggest plunge in new orders and employment in 11 years, ISM finds
The numbers: American manufacturers began to feel the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic toward the end of March as new orders and employment fell to the lowest level since the end of the 2007-2009 Great Recession, a new survey of executives showed. The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing …
Read More »The economic and monetary conditions are perfect for gold
Gold bullion has not done what it did during the past month since 2008. The Midas metal GC00, -0.30% shows rapidly rising relative performance against the CRB Index as industrial commodities are crashing due to the coronavirus effect. Gold bullion is staying firm, close to a multiyear absolute high. This …
Read More »How do you choose between economic ‘deaths of despair’ and coronavirus victims? Economists, lawmakers grapple with a moral conundrum
How do you strike a balance between the country’s economic life and actual human life? Is putting America back to work sooner rather than later a Sisyphean task, the equivalent of rolling a rock perpetually uphill while up to 2 million people die of COVID-19? Or does the Sisyphean task …
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