Kyle Glazier

Business inventories advanced 0.6% to $1,601.7 billion in August, while sales climbed 0.5% to $1,246.6 billion, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

Retail sales rose 1.1% to $412.9 billion in September after climbing a revised 1.2% in August, originally reported as a 0.9% advance, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

The nation's drinking and wastewater systems are extremely underfunded and in need of billions of dollars of additional bond financing, according to a new study from the Center for American Progress.

The federal government ran a $75 billion budget surplus in September after posting an unrevised $190.5 billion deficit the previous month, the Treasury Department reported Friday, resulting in a final fiscal year 2012 deficit of $1.1 trillion.

A database charting new college graduate salaries in Virginia could help the credit of public universities by underscoring the value of certain degrees and encouraging efficiency, Moody's Investors Service said Friday.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R- Colo., has introduced legislation that would allow governmental and 501(c)(3) nonprofit bonds to be refunded a second time so that issuers and borrowers could save money by taking advantage of low interest rates.

The U.S. international trade deficit was $44.2 billion in August, a 4.1% increase from the revised $42.5 billion deficit in July, originally reported as $42 billion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday

Most of the twelve Federal Reserve districts reported continued modest economic growth in August and September, with healthy tourism and improved residential real estate conditions somewhat offset by mixed reports on consumer spending and manufacturing, according to the Beige Book, released by the Federal Reserve Wednesday.

Sales of merchant wholesalers climbed 0.9% to $405.4 billion in August after falling a revised 0.2% in July, originally reported as a 0.1% decline, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Transportation and infrastructure policy has taken a back seat throughout the presidential campaign so far, a fact that industry insiders think is an intentional dodge of the daunting challenge of funding new investment.

Consumer credit jumped $18.1 billion, or 8%, in August to $2.725.6 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.

With the economy continuing to grow at a slow pace, the Federal Open Market Committee's new quantitative easing program won approval despite skepticism about whether it would be as effective as previous rounds of accommodation, according to the minutes of the committee's Sept. 12-13 meeting, released Thursday.

New orders for manufactured goods fell $24.9 billion or 5.2% to $452.8 billion in August, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Fluctuating fuel prices and a reluctance to raise on customers in a down economy could put pressure on public utilities credits in the near future, analysts from the three major credit agencies warn.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of Corr V. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, a lawsuit that strikes at MWAA's primary mechanism of repaying more than $2 billion of bond debt.

The Maryland Capital Debt Affordability Committee approved Gov. Martin O'Malley's request for $150 million more bond authority despite the criticism of Comptroller Peter Franchot.

WASHINGTON - Construction spending fell 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted estimated annual rate of $837.1 billion in August, the sharpest decline since a 3% plummet in July 2011, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

The District of Columbia will sell $700 million of general obligation notes Oct. 11, part of a flurry of borrowing activity to close the calendar year.

Personal income rose $15 billion or 0.1% in August, while consumption grew 0.5%, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The investment holdings of the 100 largest state and local public pension systems fell 1.5% from $2.76 trillion to $2.72 trillion in the second quarter of 2012, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey released Thursday.