Economics has a term for what U.S. grocery prices have done in recent years. It's the rockets and feathers effect. Rockets, because the cost of food for eating at home shot up up after the coronavirus pandemic. Feathers, because prices fall slowly once they increase. That’s frustrating for Americans digesting a 33% jump in grocery prices since 2019 — the sharpest increase in 50 years. Food price inflation peaked nationwide in 2022, but it hasn’t reversed course. An acceleration during the Iran war prolonged the aggravation. A recent study by the consulting firm Bain & Co. and market research company NielsenIQ found that shoppers are buying fewer items at grocery stores.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest set of tariffs has provoked heated objections from America’s trading partners. The administration late Thursday announced tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on 60 countries. Trump says they failed to adequately enforce a ban on goods made with forced labor. Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell has slammed them as unjustified. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the U.S. has not given meaningful evidence to support the allegations against dozens of countries accounting for 99% of products imported into the U.S. Japan's chief government spokesperson says the move was regrettable. The new tariffs took effect just as Trump's temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expired at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Credit card giant American Express said its second-quarter profits rose 8% from a year earlier, helped by higher spending by its card members,…

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in nearly 12 months, pushing up borrowing costs for prospectiv…

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged Thursday amid uncertainty about how volatile energy prices w…

U.S. stock indexes barely budged after oil prices climbed another 3%. The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% Wednesday after swinging between modest losses and gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was virtually unchanged and slipped less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.6%. Philip Morris International, AT&T and other stocks rallied after reporting stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected. But AI stocks continued to swing and dragged the U.S. market with them. The price for Brent crude oil touched its highest level in nearly six weeks, and Treasury yields rose in the bond market.

Britain’s new leader, Andy Burnham, is facing the same old problem: How can he kickstart a sluggish economy so that growing companies and increased output generate enough additional revenue to boost defense spending and pay for everything else voters want without raising taxes? It’s a question that has bedeviled every prime minister since the financial crisis of 2008. And their failure to find an answer is a big part of the reason that the men and women who have taken up residence behind the famous black door at 10 Downing Street in that period have had an average tenure of two years.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s Congress on Tuesday approved nearly all of the remaining changes to a sweeping tax and economic overhaul packag…