Who would have thought power tools and patio sets would be big holiday-season winners? After big-box retailers such as Walmart Inc. and even superstar Target Corp. came up short during the 2019 holiday shopping sprint, Home Depot Inc. rebounded with a better-than-expected fourth quarter. Same-store sales rose 5.2%, ahead of consensus expectations of a 4.7% gain. The gains indicate the ...

The US equity market finally is taking notice of the coronavirus, which now is spreading from China to other countries and increasing the risk of a shock that could cause a US recession. So what are the implications for the US economy and the Federal Reserve? Obviously, that is a difficult question to answer because it’s impossible to anticipate what ...

Everyone is wondering when China will return to work. While it may be tempting to consider past epidemics or labour strikes to gauge how quickly that could happen, the industrial shutdown from the coronavirus is looking more like a natural disaster than anything else. It may even get worse. Chinese industrial activity remains severely depressed. One tracker shows an even ...