Dull February retail sales mark departure from January’s holiday cheer
A post-holiday hangover clouded retail sales last month as resilient but weary consumers corrected their outsize January spending, holiday discounts faded and an air of caution returned, heightened by still high prices and rising interest rates. Retail and food...
Tight U.S. Housing Market Cools in 2022, Thanks To Rising Mortgage Rates
Home prices continued to decline nationally in December, for the sixth month in a row, a sign that high mortgage rates are continuing to deter potential buyers. The seasonally adjusted S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller home price index declined by 0.3%, compared to last...
Manufacturing Slows Again in February As Firms Hope For Brighter Second Half of 2023
Photo by jannonivergall via Pixabay The U.S. manufacturing sector shrank again in February, but at a slower rate than in previous months, a sign that activity may be starting to stabilize. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Wednesday released its monthly...
Hotels, Travel Businesses Treading Water Waiting for International Tourists
Robert Miller, the president and founder of Travel Advocates, was on pace for his best year ever when Covid hit. His business, which helps large groups book travel and accommodations throughout the country, earned two-thirds of its revenue from foreigners traveling to...
Older workers are key to manufacturing’s recovery, but will they be retrained and rehired?
Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf meets manufacturing workers in Hatboro, Penn. in 2015. (Photo: Flickr, CC BY 2:0) Stephen Ory’s career in manufacturing stretches back three decades, in shipyards, electricity utility, and nuclear. But when the nuclear power station he...
Supply Chain Shortages Still Persist in the Booming Restaurant Industry
A cook with no cookware is like a fish with no water. For an Alabama cook at a Huntsville gastropub cuisine restaurant, who asked to go by Sean, what sounds like a cook’s worst nightmare has become a recurring problem for the past two years.
Five Things to Watch in the May International Trade Report
The last two international trade reports have shown the US trade deficit holding at a record high. Tomorrow, the latest report will be released. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the deficit to hit a new record, likely over $100 billion, compared with about $89...
Five Things To Watch Out For in Manufacturing
The manufacturing sector made slight progress in the month of March, and evidence points towards a similar outcome for April. Regional indexes from the Chicago and Philadelphia Fed declined last month, also signaling that the ISM number may not spike drastically. ...
Shipping Costs, Delays Are Squeezing Businesses — And There’s No End in Sight
Businesses across the US have struggled with skyrocketing shipping expenses and lengthy delays for much of the last year, forcing them to make a decision: raise prices or swallow the increased costs. Contract rates to ship containers to the US have nearly tripled in the past year, while one-off spot rates rose as much as 1000%.
Keep Your Friends Close, and Your $5 Oat Milk Latte Closer: How Coffee Shops Are Weathering Inflation
William Somerville opened his coffee shop Social House Café in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the week before the coronavirus lockdowns began in New York in March 2020. Two years later, after grappling with COVID-19, he’s facing a new challenge: inflation. Costs are up from...