The economy added 94,000 non-farm payroll jobs last month down from the 170,000 added in October. As a result of strong employment growth in household survey, the unemployment rate was steady at 4.7%. Oil prices increased, as the U.S. government lobbied international powers not to back down on OPEC's second-largest producer, Iran, over its nuclear …

The European Central Bank held its benchmark rate unchanged at 4 percent, despite surging inflation and a stronger euro. Earlier, The Bank of England cut its key rate by a quarter of a point to 5.5 percent, worried about a slowing economy. The Labor Department reported that applications for jobless benefits dipped by 15,000 last week to a total of …

Congressional aides say the Bush administration has hammered out an agreement with industry to freeze interest rates for certain subprime mortgages for five years in an effort to combat a soaring tide of foreclosures. The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan increased 22.5 percent to 791.8, the high…

According to a survey from the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities, chain-store sales for the week ended Dec. 1st rose 3.1% from the year-ago period. On a week-over-week basis, sales dropped 2%. Oil prices rose a bit today as investors placed bets on whether OPEC oil ministers would increase production during a meeting late…

U.S. manufacturing expanded in November as new orders and production improved, but the pace of growth was a touch weaker than the prior month. The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing index registered 50.8 last month, down from 50.9 in October. If you've got a 7% adjustable mortgage that's about to skyrocket past 10%, get…

According to the Chicago purchasing managers' index, most firms in the Chicago region were growing in November. The index improved to 52.9% in November from 49.7% in October. The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending edged up 0.2 percent in October, the weakest showing since a similar increase in June. Individual incomes grew by just …

A Department of Commerce report showed that new home sales rose 1.7 percent, but lower than expected, to an annual rate of 728,000 units in October from a revised 716,000 unit rate in the previous month. Economists had expected sales to come in at 750,000. The Labor Department reported that new applications filed for unemployment insurance rose by …

Prices of existing U.S. single-family homes slumped 4.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, matching a record decline from the previous period as the housing downturn deepened. Consumer confidence dropped to the lowest in two years in November as Americans struggled with surging fuel costs and falling home prices, economists project r…

According to a UBS poll, investor optimism about the outlook for U.S. financial markets fell this month to the lowest since September 2005 after concern grew that the world's biggest economy is headed into a recession. The Index of Investor Optimism dropped to 44 in November from 70 last month. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced it will…

Slower growth for the economy may be on the horizon, continuing after the holidays, the Conference Board said, reporting that a gauge of future economic growth fell 0.5% in October. Only three of the 10 leading economic indicators rose in October, with the largest positive contribution from stock prices. First-time seasonally adjusted claims for st…

The Commerce Department reported that housing construction rose by 3 percent in October, the first increase after three months of declines and the biggest advance since a 6 percent rise last February. Applications for building permits fell for the fifth straight month in October. According to the eighth annual holiday-spending survey by the Consume…

The painful collapse of the housing market along with the credit crunch will weigh down economic growth in the final three months of this year and cause economic activity to lag in 2008. The latest look-ahead from the National Association for Business Economics says the gross domestic product is on track to expand at just a 1.5 percent pace from Oc…

The consumer price index increased 0.3% in October, driven by a 1.4% gain in energy prices. This was the fastest increase in energy prices since May. Food prices rose 0.3%. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, was up 0.2% in October. The number of initial claims in the week ending Nov 10 rose 20,000 to 339,000. It's the highest level…

The Federal Open Market Committee announced that it's taking a series of steps to give the public a greater understanding of the basis for its interest-rate decisions. In a statement, the FOMC -- charged with formulating U.S. monetary policy -- said it would provide more-timely information about the evolving outlook by releasing its economic projec…

Japan's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent after a two-day meeting policy meeting amid deepening concerns about slower growth in the U.S. economy. The International Energy Agency said it sees strong indications that high prices are depressing demand, which, together with signs of higher output from Saudi Arabia, …

Oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel in Asia after reports that the oil exporter group OPEC would discuss increasing its output at an upcoming meeting in a bid to cool record crude prices. The next OPEC meeting is scheduled for December 5th in Abu Dhabi. China's trade surplus jumped to a new all-time monthly high in October, despite government ple…

A surge in exports in September helped push the U.S. trade deficit down to $56.5 billion, the lowest in more than two years. U.S. exports rose 1.1% to a record $140.1 billion on record shipments of capital goods, industrial materials and foods. Imports into the United States increased 0.6% to $196.6 billion, the second highest ever. The weaker U.S.…

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, warning that higher inflation and weaker economic growth could be in store, told Congress that the central bank is keeping a close eye on the subprime mortgage crisis and recent spike in oil prices. But Bernanke also downplayed fears of a recession, saying that the Fed expected the economy to grow next year, a…

The productivity of the U.S. non-farm workplace jumped at an annual rate of 4.9% in the third quarter, the fastest growth in four years. Unit labor costs, a key gauge of inflationary pressures from wages, fell at an annual rate of 0.2% in the period between July and September, the lowest in a year. Oil prices stalled in their climb toward $100 a ba…

The International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS Retail Chain Store Sales Index increased by 1.0% in the week ended November 3rd. On the year, chain store sales were up 2.4%. Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that cutting excess home inventories in the United States is the key to stabilizing the financial system at home and …

The U.S. services sector grew at a faster-than-expected rate in October boosted by strength in new orders. The Institute for Supply Management's index gauging the health of non-manufacturing industries registered 55.8, up from 54.8 in September. Citigroup Inc. (C) has forced out Chuck Prince as chairman and chief executive amid word the financial-s…

Employers added more workers to payrolls in October, according to the government's closely watched jobs report that showed the labor market significantly stronger than Wall Street expectations. There was a net gain of 166,000 jobs in the month. Economists had forecast an 80,000 increase in the period. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.7 percent. Tr…

Consumers, battered by a steep downturn in housing and a severe credit crunch, slowed spending growth in September to the weakest performance in three months. Consumer spending rose by 0.3 percent in September, slightly lower than the 0.4 percent increase that analysts had been expecting. First-time claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to…