CNBC Economy

The U.S. trade deficit surged to its highest level since 2008 in July amid a record increase in imports, suggesting that trade could be a drag on economic growth in the third quarter.

First-time claims for state unemployment benefits were expected to total 950,000 last week, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.

U.S. productivity rose at a 10.1% rate in the second quarter as the number of hours worked declined by the largest amount since the government started compiling the data more than 70 years ago.

The federal budget deficit is projected to hit a record $3.3 trillion due to Covid-19 costs and the recession, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

Firms that track job growth for workers in industries like retail and hospitality say that employment barely budged in August.

Companies added 428,000 jobs during the month, well below the projections for 1.17 million though a leap above the lackluster 212,000 that ADP measured for July.

"There are some winners in the economy and the average looks OK, but there are still huge losers versus those winners, and that's a big societal challenge," Bridgewater Associates co-CIO Greg Jensen told CNBC.

The pace of job gains over the next decade will slow considerably amid a sharp decline in the active labor force and an aging population, according to Labor Department projections released Tuesday.

Clarida also said he and his fellow officials do not see negative interest rates as a viable option now and doubt the effectiveness of yield curve controls, though that could change.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on "Closing Bell" that he expects the economy to continue to recover into next year while the central bank holds its policies steady.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker joined CNBC's "Squawk Box" to discuss the central bank's new inflation goal.

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The Fed will have to keep supporting the economy as the recovery from the pandemic "is going to be a slow one," a top official at the central bank said.

Global CFOs have a more positive outlook for China's economy than they do for the economy of the United States, the Q3 CNBC Global CFO Council Survey revealed on Friday.

U.S. consumers increased their spending by 1.9% last month, a dose of support for an economy struggling to emerge from the grip of a pandemic that has held back a recovery and kept roughly 27 million people jobless.

While markets rallied on the sentiment that the new policy would keep short-term rates anchored near zero well into the future, there also was plenty of skepticism that the Fed would be able to reach its goal.

Dennis Lockhart, Atlanta Fed president from 2007 to 2017, said the U.S. economy needs more fiscal stimulus to "ward off a worst-case scenario."

The Fed wants to go far deeper to get lower-income and underemployed Americans to work, before it pulls back from its easy policies.

The Federal Reserve announced a major policy shift Thursday, saying that it is willing to allow inflation to run hotter than normal in order to support the labor market and broader economy.

The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time came in above 1 million for a second consecutive week.