economy

House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Thursday rejected a request by some House Democrats to vote to extend unemployment benefits through a smaller coronavirus relief package, saying it could undercut negotiations on other Democratic funding priorities. More than 100 House Democrats had urged party leaders to allow a vote on a bill on Saturday …

Uber and Lyft saw their stocks soar after an eleventh-hour stay allowed the companies to avoid a service shutdown in California. The ride-hail giants were set to suspend service in their largest US market Thursday at midnight after a judge ruled they had violated the state’s Assembly Bill 5, which requires companies to classify their …

The U.S. labor market remains unstable as 1.1 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, up from 960,000 the week before. While there were far fewer jobless claims than at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment benefit applications have hovered between 1-2 million for the past two months, according to the U.S. Department …

Some 1.1 million Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, driving the total for the coronavirus pandemic above 57 million as the labor market struggled toward recovery. Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims rose above 1 million after falling below that level the prior week for the first time in five months, the latest US …

The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, rebounding from huge losses sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and breaking a previous record set in February. The S&P 500 climbed 0.23 percent, surpassing its intraday high of 3,393.52, before beating its February record and closing at 3,389.78. The index had come close to a …

Japan on Monday reported its worst drop in GDP on record, with its economy shrinking a record 7.8% from April to June as the coronavirus pandemic severely slowed economic activity in the country. The decrease translates to an annual rate of decline of 27.8%, the worst quarter the world’s third largest economy has recorded since …

US retail sales recovered to pre-coronavirus levels last month as stores continued to do business despite the pandemic, but the rate of growth fell below expectations as COVID-19 infections surged and stimulus funds ran dry. Merchants raked in about $536 billion in July, up 1.2 percent from the prior month and roughly 1.6 percent above …

The Senate adjourned on Thursday until September 8, the day after Labor Day, without reaching a deal for the next round of coronavirus relief legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that Democrats would pare down their $3 trillion relief bill to $2 trillion if Republicans were willing to compromise and boost their $1 trillion …

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Thursday said he expects the US unemployment rate to return to single-digit levels as early as this month and growth in the third quarter at 20 percent or more as the economy recovers from the recession triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. “The key point that I would make …

U.S. multinational corporations are pushing the Trump administration to soften the president’s executive order banning Chinese app WeChat, fearing a total ban will hinder their business efforts in China. Trump ordered the Commerce Department earlier this month to draw up a plan to ban WeChat within 45 days. WeChat is China’s most common messaging app, …