Strategy in TECH...
A new poll from Gallup suggests that consumers are in the mood to spend – and spend generously – at the upcoming holiday season. How much will they spend? What percentage of Americans say they’ll spend less? Or more? Read below to see the results of this surprising poll…
As the economy continues to show more signs of a slowdown, we can’t help but notice increasing volatility in the month-to-month readings of various statistics. The latest government data on housing construction starts is a great example of this. After a big jump in August, starts dropped in September by 9.4% – a larger than normal amount – from the revised rate in August.
In a new report by the U.S. Commerce Department released Wednesday, U.S. retail sales in September have broadly dropped for the first time in seven months. The report is seen by many economists as another significant sign of a cooling economy.
New research data released by eMarketer on the search engine advertising market shows that Google, the perennial leader in search advertising revenues, remains in first place. However, the data reveals a strongly rising competitor coming in second. Who that competitor is just may surprise you.
In the choppy waters of today’s current economy, we continue to get mixed signals – this time from the housing market. Last week, we learned that residential construction starts declined in June by 0.9% below the rate in May. This week, we find that sales of newly built homes in June increased by 7% as compared to sales in May.
Fortune just published its latest Global 500 ranking of the top companies in the world – and the results this year are earth-shaking. For the first time ever, since this list was launched in 1990, another country has more companies on the list of top companies than the U.S. And the bad news for the White House is that new #1 is China, the country with which it is currently in the midst of a high stakes trade war.
With most economists on pins and needles over the recent number of economic data points that seem to suggest an impending economic slowdown, word came at the end of the last week that the latest jobs report from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics saw employment take a big jump. According to this latest data, employers added a significant 224,000 jobs in June, a big increase from May’s anemic results.
Although the US is in the midst of a record period of economic expansion, more and more troubling signs have appeared over the last few months in the form of negative economic data points to suggest that a turn in the economy may be coming. This week, a trio of new reports – consumer confidence, sales of newly constructed homes, and corporate earnings revisions – suggest that economic growth is stalling and that “turn” may be here.
In the latest data from the US Department of Commerce, residential construction showed a decline for the month of May in both overall and in single-family starts. Viewed by many as another sign of an economic slowdown, housing is a major component of the overall US gross national product.
The US Department of Labor reported this morning that non-farm jobs grew by 75,000 in May. According to a Wall Street Journal survey of economists, the May jobs number was expected to come in at 180,000 – so this is a large and surprising miss.
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