let s get a check on cnn business this friday morning looking at markets around the world. asian markets closed down. covid-19 outbreaks still dogging construction and manufacturing. europe also a lower tone early on. here on wall street stock index futures down here after this ominous warning from fedex raising new alarms about the economy. fedex parking cargo aircraft, closing offices, reducing sunday ground operations. fedex grappling with higher fuel and labor costs and package delivery weakness in asia. dow fell 173 points. s&p 500 nasdaq fell by more than 1% each. retail sales rose by 0.3%. unemployment dropped to a 3-month low. gas prices dropping again, now $3.69 a gallon. mortgage rates are highest since 2008. freddie mac averaging 6.02% this week, up from last week and more
you saw car sales, auto sales fall a little bit here. but when you strip out autos and gasoline, you had a stronger core rate of inflation core rate of retail sales than many people had expected. year over year, sales up 10.3%. so when you dig into this number a little bit, you re still seeing signs of a resilient consumer. it is so interesting, especially that gas price number was really a relief for so many families. that s kind of a game changer here. when you talk to economists, many are saying these are not recessionary numbers we re seeing. we re seeing a consumer who will change maybe what they re buying, but keep buying it. online sales had a very strong performance. it was prime day. 300 million products purchased on prime day. so people were taking the savings to the gas station and buying things online, essentially. i filled up the car yesterday and it was $3.69 a gallon. first time below 4 bucks in a long time. where does the average stand nationally and is it still
i want to go one, two, three poke all done, sweetheart. reporter: tonight an evolving pandemic in a changing approach to our daily lives. miguel almaguer, nbc news, los angeles. and tonight more evidence or at least hope that inflation may have peaked. the average price of gas has now dropped below $4 a gallon. the lowest since march. and there are more positive signs here s tom costello. reporter: while the national pump price average is dropping, now below $4 a gallon, nbc news sampling found prices can vary greatly. $3.33 in dallas. $3.69 in north carolina $3.83 on the jersey shore. $4.32 in philly. $4.79 in chicago $5.05 near portland, oregon and $6.29 at this station in los angeles. while pump prices have dropped from a national high of $5.01 in june i can really see the difference from
over this country. 33% of americans approve, i should say, of president biden s job right now. why do you think that is? do you think the white house needs to recalibrate as we head into the mid term year? here s what i think. i think the overwhelming factor in this is the fact that americans after nearly two years of the pandemic are feeling burdened and tired by it. i know i am. i know everybody i know is. and so as long as we re dealing with this and we re nearly two years into it, it is putting a lid on people s, you know, enthusiasm about great economic numbers, for example. and unemployment rate 3.69% and jobs created in the first year of the biden administration. my belief is this. i think we re going to get into the spring and we re not going to be past covid, but in the spring and the combination of the percentage vaccinated and the percentage who have natural antibodies is going to be quite
tijuana is about four bucks a gallon, $1 to 1.5 cheaper than california, but yesterday i got gas in maryland for 3.69 larry hogan took the tax off. so, i don t know if folks want to drive to maryland, you can get cheap gas. sandra: not advisable. russian forces now moving out of kyiv, but just outside the city, a horrible, horrible scene. the war may be taking an even more horrific turn. putin and his military accused of genocide in the suburbs surrounding kyiv. rebecca grant next on that. plus, there s this.