U.S. businesses increased their stockpiles slightly in March, while their sales were flat. The Commerce Department says business inventories rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in March, matching February’s gain. And sales were unchanged in March after inching up 0.2 percent in February. An effort by businesses to rebuild their stockpiles had added a full percentage point to economic growth in the October-December quarter, a period when the economy grew by a tepid 2.1 percent as measured b

President Donald Trump acknowledged that “we have a very divided country” when asked during an exclusive interview with NBC News whether the legitimacy of his presidency was under attack. But I’m not involved with Russia,” Trump said. Trump also said he had asked Comey whether he was under investigation for alleged ties to Russia. “I actually asked him” if I were under investigation, Trump said, noting that he spoke with Comey once over dinner and twice by phone. “I know I’m not under investigat

Deutsche Bank lowered its rating on General Electric to sell from hold, saying the industrial blue chip will be forced to reduce its dividend and lower its earnings guidance in the coming years. “Eventually, GE could proportionately run out of things to sell while the capital dividend should largely be gone after 2018.” The analyst lowered his price target for General Electric to $24 from $28, representing 17 percent downside from Thursday’s close. The current Wall Street consensus for General E

In the United States, a family of four is considered “low income” if it makes about $24,000. In San Francisco, however, a family of that size is now considered “low income” even if it makes $105,350. That’s according to San Francisco’s local news station KRON TV, which reports “that a family of four in San Francisco earning more than $100,000 a year can now qualify for affordable housing” from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and local HUD-subsidized sources. “[T]he

The country is obviously better off if James Comey is replaced as FBI director by someone who is good at running the FBI — it’s a large and important government agency that carries out many crucial functions. But in terms of the immediate obstruction of justice crisis kicked off by President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Comey, it’s important to be clear. Choosing a new FBI director, no matter how well-qualified or how sterling his reputation for independence and integrity, doesn’t fix the pro

This happens when economic growth reaches trend growth or rises above it. This occurs when economic growth tends to be markedly below trend growth or contracting, and actual demand for commodities is weak. These adjustments suggest that supply growth will be slow in the coming years. We see supply growth easing across base metals and bulk commodities. The second factor to consider is China’s greater focus on supply capacity in areas like steel, coal and aluminum.

Depending on where you live, a $300,000 home looks very different. In Ohio, for instance, that amount will buy you well over 3,000 square feet, but in Hawaii, it will only get you about 625 square feet. That’s according to a new report from personal finance site GOBankingRates, which looked at median property listing prices on Zillow to calculate how much home you can buy for $300,000 in every U.S. state. Here are the states where you’ll get the most and least bang for your buck:

A Russian fighter jet and a US surveillance plane had a close encounter earlier this week 1 Hour Ago | 00:42A Russian fighter jet came within about 20 feet of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft over the Black Sea earlier this week, an American official said. In a statement issued Friday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said a Su-30 jet had “executed a ‘greeting’ maneuver” toward the American pilots. It added that the fighter had been scrambled after “an air target approaching the Russian state borde

J.C. Penney’s stock plunged Friday after the embattled retailer reported weak comparable sales and a massive net loss in the first quarter. Shares of the stock fell as low at $4.78 on this news, hitting a fresh all-time intraday low not seen since 2014. The stock drop came after the company reported revenue that also fell short of estimates in the quarter. The department store operator’s net loss widened to $180 million, or 58 cents per share, in the first quarter, from $68 million, or 22 cents

The chief executive of one of the country’s largest health insurance companies says he is open to having a single-payer debate. “Single-payer, I think we should have that debate as a nation,” Aetna chief executive Mark Bertolini said Thursday. Bertolini spoke to a private meeting where Aetna employees could ask questions of their chief executive. A partial video of his remarks provided to Vox includes Bertolini responding to a question about single-payer health care. “In other words, partnering

Several legal experts and Justice Department officials I spoke to now say that this conclusion was unnecessarily cautious. (Most of the emails turned out to be duplicates of messages collected in the previous phase of the Clinton investigation.) “He knew what was the right thing to do,” a former federal prosecutor who worked with Comey told me. But, from the start of his 10-year term at the FBI, Comey asserted a belief in the agency’s right to chart its own course. Justice Department officials s

Tory Burch is a fashion icon who sits at the helm of her namesake fashion brand that in 2016 did more than $1 billion in sales. She’s ambitious, and proud to be. But in the course of her career, she’s also passed on tremendous professional opportunity. In 2001, she got the job offer of a lifetime: President a LVMH Group, the influential Paris fashion house that owns luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Dom Pérignon and Veuve Clicquot, among many others.

Consumer sentiment climbed to 97.7 in mid-May, riding the so-called Trump bump a little longer, The University of Michigan said on Friday. Economists were expecting The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index to see a smaller preliminary reading of 97, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates. “Consumer sentiment remained on the high plateau established following Trump’s election, with the early May figure nearly identical with the December to May average of 97.4,” Richard Curt

President Donald Trump said he has seen new poll numbers that make clear if the presidential election were held now “I would win by a lot more than I did on November 8.” “That were so good, so strong, that if the election were held today, I would win by a lot more than I did on November 8,” Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt. On Thursday, the new Quinnipiac University Poll found that just 36 percent of the public approves of Trump’s performance as president, with 58 percent disapproving. Tim Malloy, a

President Donald Trump’s sour relationship with recently axed FBI Director James Comey just got worse. The president threatened Comey on Twitter just days after firing him in a surprise move earlier this week. Trump fired Comey on Tuesday, and the president said in an NBC News exclusive interview on Thursday that he had been planning to do so regardless of what the Department of Justice recommended. But current and former FBI officials told NBC News late Thursday that it was Trump, not Comey, wh

The tweets come as White House press statements created confusion regarding the timeline of the recent ouster of FBI Director James Comey. In an exclusive interview with NBC News aired on Thursday, Trump said he had decided on his own to fire Comey before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recommended he do it. Further muddling the timeline, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that Sessions and Rosenstein expressed their concerns about Trump in a meeting Monday. Acc

President Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director threatens the independence of America’s top law enforcement agency, a former FBI official told CNBC. “[Trump] is out of control,” the former official continued, adding that what the president has done “goes against core American values.” White House press statements, though, are creating confusion regarding the timeline of Comey’s firing within the FBI. For example, White House press secretary Sean Spicer has said the president fired

President Donald Trump’s lawyers say a review of his last 10 years of tax returns do not reflect “any income of any type from Russian sources,” with some exceptions. The lawyers did not release copies of Trump’s tax returns so The Associated Press cannot independently verify their conclusions. The letter says there is no equity investment by Russians in entities controlled by Trump or debt owed by Trump to Russian lenders. It does reflect income from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant held in Moscow

He said the last time he felt U.S. political risk this much was in 2008 when Washington was attempting to resolve the financial crisis. Now, he’s finding it’s risk of a different sort, but it’s a new concern for some investors, who are used to weighing political risk in Europe and emerging markets. Christopher said investors are increasingly concerned about the timing of tax reform, and that it could be kicked into next year. The political risk is not any discrete event in and of itself. I thoug

Americans are finally moving out on their own again, and for the first time since the Great Recession, new owners are outpacing new renters in the housing market. As millennials age into their mid-30s, they’re leading what is expected to be a huge surge in first-time homebuyers, but location has never been more important. New buyers today are more mobile, thanks to technology in the workforce, so choosing an entry market is key. “As millennials reach the typical homebuying age, they are coming i