Research

Slow but steady
It may not be good news, but it’s not necessarily bad either. Forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect economic growth to be so quiet this year that unemployment will barely budge.

Asked about the risks to their outlook, 70% of the economists said they think their forecasts are more likely to be too optimistic than too pessimistic.

On average, the 50 respondents, not all of whom answer every question, expect slow but steady growth in 2012, with gross domestic product expanding faster than the first-quarter’s 2.2% pace but remaining at less than 3%. The economy is expected to add about 185,000 jobs a month over the next year.

Small business stall
Small businesses haven’t looked for as many loan opportunities in April, and banks haven’t been approving as many either.

The Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index found that loan approvals by banks with more than $10 billion in assets dropped from 10.9% in March to 10.6% in April. In March 2011, the approval rate was 11.6%, according to Forbes.

Loan approvals at banks with less than $10 billion in assets also fell, which is not a good sign because smaller banks are normally more willing to lend to small businesses. In April however small bank lending fell to 45.9% from 47.6% in March.

Credit unions told a similar story, where loan approvals decreased by 0.5% to 46.6%.

2.3 million
Homeowners are choosing to hold off on selling their homes until buying prices improve, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek report. The number of homes listed for sale in the U.S. fell 22 percent to 2.3 million in March from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s a 6.3-month supply at the current sales pace, which is considered by the association to be a balance between buyers and sellers.

In April, inventories fell to less than a three-month supply in markets including San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, northern Virginia and Seattle, according to online brokerage Redfin.

4 Years
One way to gauge how strong the economy is right now is by the feelings of consumers. And that sentiment is at its highest level in more than four years in early May as Americans were upbeat about the job market and buying plans improved, a survey showed.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary May reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment improved to 77.8 from 76.4 in April.

It was the highest level since January 2008.

While job growth has slowed, nearly twice as many consumers reported hearing about new job gains than said they heard about recent job losses, according to the survey.

But, consumers were only slightly more optimistic about declines in the unemployment rate than they were a year ago, with only one in four expecting it to fall in the year ahead, the survey said.

Employers cut back on hiring in April and March after an acceleration at the start of the year. April’s unemployment rate eased to 8.1 percent as more people dropped out of the work force.

West Coast Woes
While a dip in prices for crude oil saved most of the nation money at the pump, that was not the case for drivers on the West Coast.

In fact, retail gasoline prices rose in May, according to USA Today. The blame for increase is due to a refinery slowdown in Western states.

In California and Oregon, the average price of regular gas increased 20 cents a gallon in May, AAA reports. Average pump prices were down 19 cents in Florida and 18 cents in Virginia.

California’s average price of $4.37 is well above Florida’s $3.59, and higher than any state except Hawaii and Alaska.