ThinkstockIn a tracking survey that estimates the percentage of the U.S. population employed at least 30 hours a week, Gallup reports that the Payroll to Population (P2P) employment rate fell from 44.6% in July…
ThinkstockWhen the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) issued its weekly purchase applications report on Wednesday, the group noted without comment that interest rates for a conforming mortgage (less than $417,000) were 4.73%. Interest rates for…
courtesy Boeing Co.A Norwegian airlines revealed on Thursday that a newly delivered 787 Dreamliner from Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has been parked at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport since Monday as a result of a potential…
ThinkstockSince reaching a peak of more than 3 trillion miles driven in 2007, the number of miles driven in the U.S. has fallen by 2.9% to around 2.95 trillion miles driven. That works out…
courtesy Ford Motor Co.Automakers reported August sales throughout the day today, and the month was a big one for most carmakers. Based on analysts’ estimates, the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for 2013 is…
Courtesy ZTE Corp.The worldwide market for mobile phones is expected to grow by 7.3% in 2013, and global shipments of smartphones is expected to pass the 1 billion unit mark in a single year…
ThinkstockThe number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom video programming fell by 366,000 in the second quarter of 2013, according to research firm SNL Kagan. The summertime drop was not unexpected, and the…
ThinkstockDollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) reported second-quarter 2013 results before markets opened this morning. The discount retailer reported adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.77 on revenues of $4.39 billion. In the same…
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications this morning, noting a rise of 1.3% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index following a decline of 2.5% for the previous…
ThinkstockLinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a secondary offering of $1 billion in the company’s Class A common stock. The underwriters have…
September 3, 2013: U.S. markets opened higher on Tuesday morning following Monday’s Labor Day holiday with an upbeat reaction to European and Asian PMI reports. ISM data for the U.S. rose unexpectedly and July new…
ThinkstockStratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) has filed a shelf registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow it to issue sell an unspecified number of ordinary shares, warrants, and debt securities. At…
ThinkstockSince late June, copper prices have been trending upward, from a low of around $3.00 a pound to around $3.30 on Tuesday. Production is estimated to be 167,000 metric tons (tonnes) above demand this…
courtesy of Nokia Corp.The announced acquisition by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) of the mobile phone business of Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) for $7.2 billion gives Microsoft a couple of things. First, is an internal…
ThinkstockThe U.S. Census Bureau reported this morning that construction spending in July increased by 0.6%, to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $900.8 billion from an upwardly revised estimate of $895.7 billion in…
ThinkstockSince hitting a five-year peak in mid-May of this year, shares of homebuilders’ stocks have dropped between 15% to 33%. That is about the time that mortgage interest rates began climbing and home prices…
ThinkstockThe last, and largest, of the discount variety stores reports second quarter earnings tomorrow. Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) is expected to post earnings per share (EPS) of $0.74 on revenues of $4.36 billion.…
August 30, 2013: U.S. markets opened slightly higher on Friday morning but soured almost immediately. Data on personal income and personal spending was mixed and the Chicago Fed PMI reading came out as expected. The…
ThinkstockThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its preliminary report on August farm prices on Friday afternoon. The August all-products price index dropped by 12 points (6%) to 188 month-over-month, with the crop index…
ThinkstockAfter an unexpected jump to a six-year high 85.1 in July, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell back to earth on Friday. The final index reading for August came in at…