Cathy Balestriere was expecting “especially low” bookings last month at Crane’s Beach House, the boutique hotel she manages in Delray Beach, Florida. Instead, they jumped 12% from the year before. “It feels like a miracle based on where we were sitting just a few weeks ago,” she said. It’s not a miracle. It’s the weather. The surge coincided with a ...

Gasoline prices are still slightly cheaper than this time a year ago, but they’ve been inching up this week. At about $3.51 as of Friday, a gallon of regular costs just a penny less than it did at the same time in 2023, according to AAA. There’s still some uncertainty ahead, given the record 60 million travelers who were expected ...

This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans. Unlike most people who switched jobs during the Great Resignation, Shannon Penney is working twice as much for roughly the same pay she made years ago. She wouldn’t change it. Penney, 37, became disenchanted nearly a decade ago with her work ...

The economy added 206,000 jobs last month, according to fresh government data, but unemployment inched above 4% for the first time in over two years. The June jobs report, released Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed somewhat hotter hiring than the 200,000 nonfarm job gains economists had expected. That marked a slowdown since May, whose level was ...

This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans. Becky Melvin can usually be found on her phone — but not for the reasons many other Americans are. Melvin, 61, of the Jacksonville, Florida, area, was laid off from a nearly six-figure public relations job in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2019. Since ...

This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans. Stefanie Longenecker would love to take advantage of rising wages, a strong job market and the master’s degree she’s still paying off. But she has been sidelined from the workforce by a child care system that has grown inaccessible for many ...

Americans will be splashing around this summer in the backyard pools they’ve already got, but not splashing out as much on new ones.  Swimming pool installations were part of the home improvement frenzy that swept the country during the pandemic as Americans were stuck at home. But recent signs show demand is slowing as households with spending money shift it ...

Record summer air travel demand isn’t translating to record U.S. airline profits. Carriers will have to answer for that disconnect when they report quarterly results this month. Some airlines have forecast record demand, and in some cases, revenue. On Sunday, the Transportation Security Administration screened more than 3 million people, a one-day record. But higher labor and other costs have eaten into airlines’ ...

Target will soon stop accepting personal checks as a form of payment at checkout. In a statement to NBC News, the retail giant said it was committed to creating an easy and convenient checkout experience — but that due to ‘extremely low volumes,’ it would no longer take personal checks starting July 15. It said it has taken several measures to ...

The markets continued with their unabated upmove in the week that went by and ended once again with net gains. While continuing with the advance the Nifty 50 Index extended its move higher. However, as compared to the previous week, this time, the trading range got narrower as the Index oscillated 408.30 points against 824 points. This can largely be ...

We’re approaching Q2 earnings season, so I’m getting ready for all the short-term trading opportunities that await. But, in the meantime, there are plenty of other earnings opportunities right now – pre-earnings advances. Several of the large cap names (think Mag 7) are already starting powerful advances. Look no further than Tesla, Inc. (TSLA), which reports its results in just ...

If you were taking time off from the stock market, since it wasn’t doing much in the last week or so, you’re in for a nice surprise. July is considered a good month for stocks, and the first trading week of the month, albeit short, didn’t indicate otherwise. It may have been a short trading week, but a lot happened—ECB ...