economy

Technology stocks took a tumble on Wall Street Thursday, giving back some of their spectacular gains over the past several months and dragging the rest of the market down with them. The S&P 500 was down 3.4 percent as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 4.8 percent. Both indexes had set …

Some 881,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as the coronavirus pandemic kept the job market under pressure, the feds said Thursday. The significant drop in initial jobless claims was likely the result of changes to how the US Department of Labor reports the weekly numbers. The agency started using a new method for …

Australia’s economy suffered its sharpest economic contraction since the Great Depression due to the pandemic, with data released Wednesday confirming the country is in its first recession in 28 years. The economy shrank 7 percent in June, the biggest contraction since records began in 1959, the government reported. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament: “This …

Business was booming for New York City’s merchants of color before the coronavirus pandemic pushed many to the brink of collapse, a new report says. The Big Apple was home to 64,514 minority-owned businesses — or 31.4 percent of all firms citywide — in 2017, up 7.4 percent from about 60,000 in 2012, according to …

American consumers increased their spending by just 1.9 percent in July as the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic lost some momentum. Last month’s $267.6 billion jump in consumer spending beat economists’ expectations for a 1.5 percent gain even as growth slowed from a strong rebound in the prior two months, the US Commerce Department …

Gap and Banana Republic will close more than 225 stores worldwide this year as their parent company slims down its brick-and-mortar footprint. Gap Inc’s Thursday announcement suggests it’s closing far more stores than it expected in March, when it said it would end the 2020 fiscal year with about 90 fewer company-operated shops. The San …

The number of Americans who have applied for unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic grew to more than 58.4 million on Thursday, as 1 million more people filed jobless claims. More than 1 million people have now lost their jobs in 22 of the past 23 weeks, as COVID-19 has ravaged the US economy. The …

The lingering coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on New York’s economy and workforce — more than four months after the killer bug arrived here, sobering new data from the state Labor Department reveals. New York State York’s unemployment rate in July was 15.9 percent — three-tenths of a percent higher than in June. The …

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has said as president he would raise taxes for anybody making over $400,000 a year, while “no new taxes” would be raised for anyone making under that figure, saying everyone should pay “their fair share.” In a joint interview with running mate Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) on ABC’s 20/20 …

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been receiving his full monthly salary, though he pledged to take a pay cut in May in solidarity with state workers who saw a 10 percent cut in pay as a result of budgetary fallout of the coronavirus. While elected state officials are exempt from such pay cuts, Newsom promised …