Financial related news.
WASHINGTON — That big infusion of cash that Congress approved last year to shape up the beleaguered IRS is having an unexpected side benefit. The funding increase has helped the agency to catch up on processing new and backlogged tax returns. That, in turn, has allowed federal bean-counters to give policymakers a more precise picture [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Uncertainty continues to pummel the banking industry, despite assurances from financial regulators and bankers such as Jamie Dimon last week that the worst of the recent crisis is over and the health of the banking system remains strong. Bank shares sold off on Wall Street last week following the government seizure [...]
LOS ANGELES — Homebuyers should get used to painfully high mortgage rates, despite last week's signal from the Federal Reserve that it could finally pause its yearlong campaign of rate hikes. The Fed raised its short-term rate to roughly 5.1 percent Wednesday, the highest since 2007. While the Fed stopped short of declaring an end [...]
NEW YORK — Regulators seized troubled First Republic Bank early Monday, making it the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history, and promptly sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase Bank in a bid to head off further banking turmoil in the country. San Francisco-based First Republic is the third [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key index of underlying inflation that is closely followed by the Federal Reserve remained elevated in March, keeping the Fed on track to raise interest rates this week for the 10th time since March of last year. The index, which excludes volatile food and energy costs to capture "core" prices, rose [...]
LOS ANGELES — The average long-term mortgage rate rose last week for the second week in a row, another setback for homebuyers facing a housing market that remains unaffordable for many Americans after years of soaring home prices. The average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate home loan edged up to 6.43 percent from 6.39 [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s report last week that the economy grew at a 1.1 percent annual rate last quarter signaled that one of the most-anticipated recessions in the nation’s recent history has yet to arrive. Many economists, though, still expect a recession to hit as soon as the current April-June quarter — or soon [...]
WASHINGTON — The economy slowed sharply from January through March, decelerating to just a 1.1 percent annual pace as higher interest rates hammered the housing market and businesses reduced their inventories. The estimate from the Commerce Department showed that the nation's gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of economic output — weakened after growing [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are finally reaping some benefit from keeping their money in the bank. Banks are paying up for savers' deposits in a much bigger way than they have in more than a decade, based on recent earnings reports from the nation's biggest banks. After a decade of low interest rates, the [...]
NEW YORK — Inflation's grip on businesses loosened greatly in March, raising hopes that companies and consumers will suffer less from high prices as 2023 rolls on. The government said plunging energy prices pulled the producer price index down 0.5 percent in March from February. It marks the biggest decrease in producer prices in three [...]