New data on retail sales today that gave a sense of all-important consumer spending as we head into the heart of the holiday shopping season.

Annemarie Conte at Wirecutter bought a 450-pound mystery pallet of returned Amazon goods. Inside, she found a lot of polyester and a lot of info about why consumers return.

“How can you know what your financial situation is going to look like in a month?” said one expert.

According to recent data from Zillow, housing inventory and pending home sales both rose 5% last month.

Like in the U.S., tech firms developing AI in China have had a rocky few weeks.

Uptick in restaurant jobs often means people are hedging but taking on a second job.

Creator Kiki Ruff teaches her viewers to cook on a budget using skills she learned during her time on food stamps. Along the way, she’s racked up over half a million followers.

Political partisanship has become so persistent in sentiment surveys that some economists say it’s getting harder to accurately measure moods of consumers.

It could be a sign that importers already have the goods they need. It could also be a sign that the economy will dip into a “freight recession.”

TJX, the parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods, reported strong third quarter earnings and raised its profit forecast for months ahead.