The benchmark S&P 500 notched a total return, including price gains and dividends, of 28.7% last year. That was a stronger showing than that of 85% of U.S. large-cap stock-picking mutual funds. 2021 was the 12th consecutive year in which the majority of actively managed funds of large-cap stocks underperformed the S&P 500.
Last year, workers quit their jobs at the highest rate on records back to 2000, suggesting that Americans were willing to leave employment in search of better wages or more desirable perks, including remote work.
U.S. merchants paid card issuers an estimated $55.4 billion in Visa and Mastercard credit-card interchange fees in 2021, more than double the amount in 2012.
Employers added 678,000 workers to their payrolls in February, the biggest gain in seven months. The jobless rate fell to 3.8% from 4.0% a month earlier, edging closer to the 50-year low of 3.5% hit just before the pandemic.
Wheat has surge to its highest level since 2008. Corn prices have jumped around 25% so far this year touching their highest levels since March 2013. Aluminum and nickel have jumped to their highest levels in over a decade.
More than 2,300 homes at the $10 million-plus price point sold last year among 30 major luxury housing markets in the U.S., a 111.6% increase from 2020.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said a rate increase would be appropriate in March, and it’s too soon to tell how the war in Ukraine will affect the U.S.
A reappraisal analysis found a collective reduction of $9.03 billion in value among 719 commercial properties reappraised since the pandemic, all of which are facing some form of distress.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, traded above $100 per barrel Thursday morning. Futures for West Texas Intermediate, the main grade of U.S. crude, topped $96 per barrel late Wednesday, putting them up 28% this year and 52% over the past 12 months, now at its highest level since 2014.
