The fewest Americans in four decades filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, continuing to unwind an early July surge that was probably tied to mid-year factory shutdowns and school vacations.
Prices of existing homes sold in the U.S. vaulted to a record high in June, topping the mark set in 2006, as sales increased at their strongest pace in more than eight years. The data suggest the housing market is rapidly gaining ground after years of contraction and, until recently, a halting recovery.
Americans paid more for rent, groceries and gasoline in June, pushing a broad measure of annual consumer inflation into positive territory for the first time in 2015. “The consumer-price index, which reflects what Americans pay for everything from clothes to computers, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in June from a month earlier,” the Labor Department said. Prices rose 0.1% compared with a year earlier.
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