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Retail
October's retail sales results, the best performance since April 2008, show that Americans are spending a little more.
Sales at stores open at least a year rose 2.1 percent in October, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs tally, compared with a 4.2 percent drop in October 2008. The October results beat estimates for a 1 percent gain and followed a surprising 0.6 percent increase in September.
Economy
A drop in unemployment claims and an upbeat forecast from Cisco Systems Inc. is giving investors new reason to be optimistic about the economy.
Stocks ended sharply higher Thursday following a Labor Department report that the number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell to 512,000 last week. That's the lowest level since January.
The biggest jump in productivity in six years is fanning hopes for higher corporate profits.
The Dow Jones industrials rose 204 at 10,006. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 20 at 1,067, while the Nasdaq composite index increased 50 at 2,105. Associated Press
Housing
Fannie Mae said it will rent back homes to borrowers facing foreclosure under a new program designed to keep families in their houses and combat vandalism and theft in vacant properties.
Those who can't get a loan modification may be eligible to transfer ownership to the lender and rent the home at market rates, which must be no more than 31 percent of their gross income, Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company under government control, said in a statement Thursday.
The program is designed to "minimize family displacement, deterioration of neighborhoods caused by vandalism and theft to vacant homes, and the effect these have on families, communities and home price stabilization," the company said in an announcement to loan servicers. Bloomberg News
