By Nathalie Voit Ongoing inflation and a return to in-store shopping mean bad news for many e-commerce retailers. According to a Mastercard SpendingPulse report published on May 12, total retail sales nationwide accelerated 7.2% from 2021. Despite the higher levels of consumer spending, e-commerce sales fell 1.8% over the year, while in-store sales grew 10%. [...]
By Nathalie Voit The U.S. baby formula shortage that has left millions of parents in crisis mode should be easing in the coming weeks, said Commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dr. Robert Califf on May 13. “FDA is working closely w/ our federal government partners to safely bring as much infant formula [...]
By Nathalie Voit Airbnb launched a massive redesign of its platform on Wednesday that the company is touting as its “biggest change in a decade.” A new way to search, a “split-stay” feature that enables users to split their stay between two homes, and a free insurance policy for guests are among the new features [...]
By Nathalie Voit Inflation in April decelerated from its 8.5% pace in March. However, the Labor Department said prices still remain near a 40-year high. Prices for goods and services surged 8.3% from one year ago. The department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Consumer Price Index increased 0.3% after advancing 1.2% in March. April’s [...]
By Nathalie Voit High airfare costs have prompted Americans to spend less on domestic air travel, data from Adobe Digital Insights published May 12 found. In a report, Adobe said that spending on U.S. air travel fell 13% last month from $8.8 billion in March as April airline bookings declined 17%. Overall, consumers spent $1 [...]
By Nathalie Voit Consumers’ outlook on inflation slowly improved in the short-run but showed no signs of abating on a long-term basis, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations. Median one-year ahead inflation expectations fell in April to 6.3% from 6.6% in March. In contrast, median inflation [...]
By Nathalie Voit Prices at the pump hit a new all-time high this week, transportation analytics firm AAA reported. The national average for a regular gallon of gasoline is $4.40 as of May 11. The figure broke the previous record of $4.11 set in July of 2008. However, the numbers are unadjusted for inflation, meaning [...]
By Nathalie Voit Nonfarm labor productivity declined at its fastest pace in over seven decades to start the year, the Labor Department reported in an economic news release on May 5. Labor productivity, or output per hour, sank by 7.5% in the first quarter of 2022 as output fell 2.4% and hours worked increased 5.5%. [...]
By Nathalie Voit A startling 40% of Bitcoin investors are now underwater, new data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode found. Within the last month alone, 15.5% of all Bitcoin investments sank into an unrealized loss as the decentralized digital currency turned bearish from its all-time high of $69,000 in November, Glassnode said. As of close-of-day [...]
By Nathalie Voit According to recent survey findings from Gallup, Americans' views of their personal finances have deteriorated over the past year. Overall, U.S. adults are more pessimistic about their financial situation this year than last year. Forty-six percent of Americans rate their current finances as "good" or "excellent," down from 57% in 2021, the [...]
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