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256,000
“Job growth was much stronger than expected in December, possibly providing the Federal Reserve less incentive to cut interest rates this year,” CNBC reports. “Nonfarm payrolls surged by 256,000 for the month, up from 212,000 in November and above the 155,000 forecast from the Dow Jones consensus.”
227,000
America’s job market rebounded in November, adding 227,000 workers in a solid recovery from the previous month, when the effects of strikes and hurricanes had sharply diminished employers’ payrolls, reported the Associated Press. Last month’s hiring growth was up considerably from a meager gain of 36,000 jobs in October. The government also revised up its estimate of job growth in September and October by a combined 56,000.
$3.04
Gas prices continued to decrease across the country, with the national average cost for a gallon of regular gas falling to $3.037, according to AAA, reports Washington Examiner. This was a 3-cent drop from a week ago, when the cost of regular gas was $3.067 per gallon. Tuesday’s price is also less expensive than a month ago, when a gallon of regular gas was $3.103.
2.8%
Bloomberg: “Gross domestic product increased at a 2.8% annualized pace in the third quarter, the second estimate of the figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed Wednesday. The economy’s primary growth engine — consumer spending — advanced 3.5%, the most this year.”
<$3
“Gasoline is approaching or has fallen below $3 a gallon in most states, returning to a national average not seen since February in one of the clearest examples of prices declining after a period of rapid inflation,” the New York Times reports. “Prices at the pump averaged $3.16 for regular gas on Tuesday, down 11 percent from this time last year.”
3.6%
New York Times: The Consumer Price Index climbed 3.4 percent in April, down from 3.5 percent in March, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The “core” index — which strips out volatile food and fuel prices in order to give a sense of the underlying trend — rose 3.6 percent last month, down from 3.8 percent a month earlier. It was the lowest annual increase in core inflation since early 2021.
39%
“In the latest quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal, business and academic economists lowered the chances of a recession within the next year to 29% from 39% in the January survey. That was the lowest probability since April 2022, when the chances of a recession were set at 28%.”… “Economists, in fact, don’t think the economy will get even close to a recession.”
3.3%
“The economy grew much faster than expected in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable,” CNBC reports. “Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.”
110.7
US consumer confidence rose in December by the most since early 2021 as Americans grew more upbeat about the labor market and the inflation outlook. The Conference Board’s index increased to 110.7 in December from a revised 101 reading in November, data published Wednesday showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of forecasters called for a 104.5 reading.
24%
Washington Post: “Through the first five months of this year, U.S. imports from China were down 24 percent from the same period one year ago.”
