Economic Outlook

While other currencies are declining, the U.S. dollar is on a roll. An index of the dollar versus major currencies is trading around a two-decade high. The nominal effective exchange rate of the U.S. dollar appreciated by 12 percent between December 31, 2021, and September 26, 2022, according to JPMorgan estimates. During the same period, Read more

News about the economy usually highlights Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measurement familiar to even the most casual follower of economic news. Most of us know that one of the traditional benchmarks for a recession is two straight quarters of negative GDP. The latest GDP estimate says the economy contracted the equivalent of 0.6% per Read more

The U.S. economy is following an unusual trajectory, with weakening output but strong job gains. Gross domestic product (GDP), a broad measure of the goods and services produced across the economy, fell at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.6% in the second quarter, following a contraction of 1.6% in the first quarter of 2022. Read more

The U.S. economy was really cooking in 2021; bubbling with tasty ingredients like consumers eager to spend and a huge inventory spend in the last quarter, the economy grew at its fastest pace since 1984. But in 2022, the outlook predicts a blander cooling-down period. The challenges faced in 2021—tangled supply chains, tight labor markets, Read more

While the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic effects may look to be behind us, the best of the pumped-up growth resulting from lockdown recovery also appears likely to be in the rear-view mirror. At Bowen Asset Management, we expect the U.S. economy to return to more normal growth rates in the second half of Read more