By Alice Seeley U.S. consumer confidence fell in June for the second month in a row, reaching its lowest level in 16 months, according to the Conference Board. The index decreased to 98.7, down 4.5 points from its reading in May, as Americans are increasingly worried about inflation and the rising interest rates. Surprisingly, the present situation index, based [...]
By Alice Seeley On June 22, President Joe Biden asked Congress to pass a three-month suspension through September of the federal gasoline tax without taking away any money from the Highway Trust Fund, which receives funds from the tax revenue. President Biden urged Congress to provide relief for Americans as gas prices skyrocket to $5 per gallon across [...]
By Alice Seeley According to the National Association of Manufacturers' Q2 2022 Outlook survey, published on June 15, 59.3% of manufacturing leaders believe inflationary pressures will cause a recession in the next twelve months. The association conducted the survey from May 17 through 31 before the May inflation report was released. Three-quarters of manufacturers reported [...]
By Alice Seeley Despite sky-high gas and plane ticket prices, Americans are not slowing down travel for the Fourth of July weekend, According to AAA Americans. This Independence Day weekend is projected to be the second busiest in 22 years, with AAA predicting 47.9 million people traveling over the holiday weekend. If AAA is correct, this will be a 3.7% increase [...]
By Alice Seeley According to data published on June 15 by the United States Department of Commerce and the National Retail Federation (NRF), U.S. retail sales fell by 0.3% in May, down from a revised 0.7% increase in April. This is the first time retail sales in the U.S. have decreased in five months. The news is especially surprising [...]
By Alice Seeley Small business owner confidence fell for the fifth month in a row in May, hitting the lowest point ever recorded, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). NFIB reported on June 14 that its Small Business Optimism Index declined by 0.1 points in May to 93.1. The number of small business owners anticipating business conditions [...]
By Alice Seeley The United States is currently dealing with its worst pilot shortage in history. Faced with the lack of pilots and flight attendants, airlines are canceling thousands of flights. Southwest Airlines canceled almost 20,000 summer flights, and Delta announced its plans to cancel 100 daily flights from July 1 through August 7 in the U.S. and [...]
By Alice Seeley On June 2, Frontier Airlines announced it would pay Spirit Airlines a $250 million reverse breakup fee “in the unlikely event the combination is not consummated for antitrust reasons.” This is a last-minute attempt to convince Spirit shareholders to vote in favor of Frontier’s bid on June 10 as rival airline JetBlue tries [...]
By Alice Seeley On June 3, Twitter announced that the U.S. antitrust waiting period for Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter officially expired, removing another barrier to the deal. The antitrust waiting period is a 30-day waiting period established under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. The period gives the Federal Trade Commission and Justice [...]
By Alice Seeley The U.S. economy added far fewer jobs in the private sector in May than expected, according to Automatic Data Processing (ADP)'s National Employment Report released on June 2. These findings suggest that the tightest job market in decades has made it difficult for employers to fill open positions. The report found that private employment [...]
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