Bloomberg Auto workers may be getting some extra time off around Independence Day, but they won’t be celebrating. They’ll know it means sales are weak and that profits — and profit-sharing checks — could be shrinking. Manufacturers used to shut plants for a week or two in July for maintenance and to keep inventories in check. As sales boomed …

  Bloomberg You can’t blame a homeowner in Fresno, California, for viewing the thriving metropolis to its northwest with both envy and dismay. While San Francisco home values have surged since the recession, Fresno’s housing market is stuck in a rut. Less than 3 percent of homes in the city and its environs have returned to their pre-recession peak, according …

  Bloomberg The euro area maintained its growth momentum at the start of 2017, strengthening the case of those pressuring the European Central Bank to sketch out an end to extraordinary stimulus measures. Gross domestic product rose 0.5 percent in the first three months of the year, according to an initial estimate published by the European Union’s statistics office on …