By MARTIN CRUTSINGER WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans increased their spending in April at retail businesses, buying more cars and clothes while paying less for gas. The rebound from a weak March suggests consumers may help boost economic growth again this spring. Retail sales edged up 0.1 percent in April from March, the Commerce Department said [...]
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale businesses stepped up their restocking of supplies in March, but their sales fell sharply. The Commerce Department said Thursday that stockpiles held by wholesalers rose 0.4 percent in March compared with February, when they had fallen 0.3 percent. Sales in March dropped 1.6 percent, the biggest setback since [...]
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — While Ohio’s labor force is not growing at the preferred rate for an economic recovery, the number of unemployed people in the state is significantly lower than a year ago, the state said Friday as it announced monthly unemployment rates. Ohio’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February was [...]
By STEVE ROTHWELL NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average, an index of 30 U.S. stocks and a gauge of financial markets, closed at a record high of 14,253 on Tuesday. The Dow has more than doubled since hitting a 12-year low in March 2009. How have stocks managed to recover and where [...]
LIMA, Ohio — With flurries and a freezing wind nipping at noses, anti-Gov. John Kasich protesters attacked the governor’s budget prior to the start of his State of the State Speech here today. The approximately one dozen protesters, organized by the labor-related group We Are Ohio, gathered about two hours outside the Veterans Memorial Civic [...]
By JULIE PACE WASHINGTON (AP) — Uncompromising and politically emboldened, President Barack Obama urged a deeply divided Congress Tuesday night to embrace his plans to use government money to create jobs and strengthen the nation’s middle class. He declared Republican ideas for reducing the deficit “even worse” than the unpalatable deals Washington had to stomach [...]
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factory orders increased in December even though companies trimmed their orders for goods that signal investment plans. Factory orders rose 1.8 percent in December compared to November, when orders had fallen 0.3 percent, the Commerce Department said Monday. But demand for core capital goods, a category considered a [...]
By AMY TEIBEL JERUSALEM (AP) — A weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled Wednesday to keep his job by extending his hand to a new centrist party that advocates a more earnest push on peacemaking with the Palestinians and whose surprisingly strong showing broadsided him with a stunning election deadlock. The results defied forecasts that [...]
