Economy and Politics

Just before 8 a.m. on Thursday, shots rang out at Saugus High in Southern California, in a school shooting that left two dead and several other students injured. The 16-year-old suspect, a student at the Santa Clarita school, is reportedly in critical condition from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

President Donald Trump on Friday attacked the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine as she was testifying in Democrats’ impeachment probe, and announced a new rule on hospital prices.

Tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook are facing increasing scrutiny from Congress over their online dominance and potential to threaten the thousands of small businesses that compete with them.

Fed Governor Lael Brainard on Friday called for ‘heightened vigilance’ of the financial sector, as the central bank released its latest financial stability report.

The ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on Friday rebutted a critical tweet about her from President Donald Trump during the second day of open impeachment hearings, as she testified such attacks are “intimidating.”

The satellite companies behind a controversial plan for auctioning off key radio spectrum made a fresh push on Friday to win over sceptics, offering to pay at least 30% of the proposed auction’s net proceeds into the U.S. Treasury.

In a speech to the Cato Institute this week, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida made the point that the decline in the unemployment rate hasn’t translated into wage growth. Economists at RBC Capital use a chart to show he’s wrong.

The cost of goods imported into the U.S. fell sharply in October, reflecting declines in a broad array of goods such as petroleum, food, drinks and consumer electronics entering from China. The import price index sank 0.5% last month.

Factory activity in the New York region was sluggish for the sixth straight month, according to the Empire State manufacturing survey released by the New York Fed on Friday.

Industrial output fell 0.8% in October, pushed lower by the GM strike, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.

Sales at gas stations, car dealers and internet stores such as Amazon rose in October, but most other retailers posted weak results just before the start of the holiday shopping season. Retail sales increased 0.3% last month.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasts President Donald Trump just one day after the chamber’s first public impeachment hearings, comparing him unfavorably to Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 before the House could vote to impeach him.

A big step in U.S. 5G deployment could take place next month, as the FCC could back a proposal from the satellite industry for auctioning off radio spectrum. But some lawmakers don’t like the plan, and satellite stocks have slumped this week.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Business inventories in the U.S. were flat in September following a decline in August, the Commerce Department said Friday. Sales fell 0.2% in the month. The ratio of inventories to sales, meanwhile, was unchanged at 1.40. That's how many months it would take to sell all the inventory on hand. One year ago, the inventory-to-sales ratio was lower at 1.36. Flat or declining inventories are neutral or subtract from gross domestic product and usually are a sign of a weaker economy. The level of inventories in August was revised down slightly to show a 0.1% decline.

Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State and national-security adviser under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, had dire warnings about the inability of the U.S. and China to resolve their differences on international trade.

President Donald Trump planned to watch some of Friday's impeachment hearings, the White House said in a statement. "The president will be watching Congressman Nunes' opening statement, but the rest of the day he will be working hard for the American people," said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, referring to Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. During his statement, the California Republican read a just-released readout of a call between Trump and Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky. Democrats are focusing on a second call between Trump and Zelensky in which Trump asked his counterpart to "look into" former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The White House on Friday released a record of an April discussion between President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, who had then just won Ukraine's presidential election. It was released just as Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, arrived for open testimony in Democrats' impeachment proceedings. The discussion is largely congratulatory. Democrats are focusing in their impeachment inquiry on a July 25 discussion between Trump and Zelensky, in which Trump asked his counterpart to "look into" former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump calls the inquiry a "witch hunt."

The Fox News host, who holds a U. Va. law degree, insisted Thursday that the founding document lacks any reference to attempted bribery, but bribery is mentioned in its discussion of impeachment, and the U.S. legal code’s bribery statute is explicit that success is not a determinant of criminality.

She’s the darling of the far left … and of Bernie Sanders.

The U.S. and China are nearing a trade deal, but President Donald Trump isn’t ready to sign off, White House economic adviser Lawrence Kudlow said Thursday.