Home sales in Greater Baltimore jumped more than 35 percent in April, the last month for homebuyers to cash in on federal tax credits.

For the month, 2,205 homes sold in April, according to Rockville-based home sales tracker Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. That’s up from 1,632 homes in April 2009 and from 1,800 home sold in March 2010.

“We are pleased to see signs of recovery within the mid-Atlantic region,” David Charron, CEO of MRIS, said in a [...]

May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Payrolls in the U.S. surged by the most in four years in April, led by gains in private employment that indicate the economy is weaning itself from government support. [...]

(Reuters) - Signs of a recovery in the U.S. labor market grew on Wednesday as reports showed job growth among private companies and plans for layoffs falling to their lowest levels in four years.

The private sector added 32,000 jobs in April, according to the report by payrolls processor ADP Employer Services. Economists had expected a rise of 30,000 jobs, based on a Reuters poll.

The data comes two days before a closely watched U.S. payrolls report, which is [...]

WASHINGTON – A surprisingly busy month for U.S. factories and a surge in home buying are the latest signs that the economic recovery is picking up.

Orders to U.S. factories rose 1.3 percent in March, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was much better than the 0.1 percent decline analysts had expected. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders gained 3.1 percent, the biggest increase since August 2005.

Widespread activity in many industries [...]

(Reuters) - The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter as consumers stepped up spending, the strongest sign yet a sustainable recovery is taking hold.

While growth slowed from the fourth quarter's rapid 5.6 percent pace and was a touch weaker than economists expected, the details of the report from the Commerce Department on Friday were fairly upbeat.

Consumer spending, which normally accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. [...]

Economists are more upbeat about the economy as companies add jobs and increase profits, though a recovery will be slow, according to a national report released Monday.

Seventy percent of economists say the national gross domestic product will increase more than 2 percent this year, compared to only 61 percent in January. And 24 percent of economists say GDP will grow by more than 3 percent this year, compared to 14 percent of economists in January, according to [...]

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of new homes surged 27 percent in March and orders for most durable goods climbed, indicating the U.S. economy sped up heading into the second quarter.

The gain in new-home sales was the biggest in 47 years as buyers rushed to qualify for a government tax credit and the weather improved, a Commerce Department report showed. Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years, excluding cars and aircraft, climbed 2.8 [...]

TAMPA - Jeanine Frederick has been waiting for nearly two years on her dream kitchen. Her home recently sold and now the family is building a new one.

"I'm picking out kitchen cabinets, making selections on door styles and finishes," she said during a recent afternoon shopping trip to Home Depot. "It's refreshing."

Frederick isn't the only one pumping money into the building and remodeling industry. Homeowners who held back on projects because of the [...]

(Reuters) - An important measure of U.S. business borrowing showed encouraging signs of health in March, according to a trade group for the lenders that finance half the capital equipment investment in the United States.

The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association said that a total of $4.3 billion in loans, leases and credit lines were originated in March to finance business investment. While that was down 8.5 percent from the same time last year, it represented the [...]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was responsible for creating or saving 49,000 Maryland jobs in the first quarter of 2010, a recent report released by the White House claims. [...]

(Reuters) - A gauge of the U.S. economy's prospects rose more strongly than expected to a record high in March, pointing to a steady economic recovery, a private research group said on Monday.

The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators increased 1.4 percent, rising for the 12th straight month, after an upwardly revised 0.4 percent gain in February.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 1.0 percent rise in March from a previously [...]

(Reuters) - Skepticism about recovery obscures a number of signs that prove otherwise, especially the driving force that emerging markets now command in the global economy, billionaire investor Ken Fisher said on Wednesday.

Fisher, the Forbes columnist who has been tagged a perma bull by critics, said markets have failed to take into account the big spread between short- and long-term interest rates, a classic indicator of an economy on the verge of [...]

Legg Mason Inc., the Baltimore-based money manager, said that its assets under management were 8 percent higher in March than they were in March 2009. [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence rebounded in April after hitting in March its lowest level in a year, boosted by stock market gains and modest job market improvement, a research group said on Tuesday.

Investor's Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence said their IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index rose to 48.4 in April from March's reading of 45.4.

Readings above 50 indicate optimism, while those below 50 point to pessimism.

Last [...]

A leading advertising forecaster is raising its 2010 outlook on global ad spending — the most bullish reading it has had in more than a year — saying companies are gaining more confidence that the economic recovery will stick.

ZenithOptimedia expects combined ad spending in various media — including newspapers, television and billboards — to grow by 2.2 percent this year to $456 billion. That's up from its previous forecast of slightly less than 1 percent, made in [...]

(Reuters) - U.S. chief executive officers are feeling more confident about the economy, with more of them planning to add rather than cut jobs over the next six months, a Business Roundtable survey released on Wednesday found.

The change in mood -- CEOs had been inclined toward cutting jobs for about two years -- marked an important shift for an economy struggling to regain its footing after its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The retail [...]

Baltimore’s retail is beginning to bounce back, as the nation’s shopping centers are also seeing the first sales improvement in more than two years.

U.S. shopping centers saw some sales gains in March for the first time in 32 months, according to a new report by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The International Council of Shopping Centers posted a 4.5 percent business increase nationwide last month, bringing its business barometer, a key metric [...]

Businesses can now apply for a $5,000 tax credit for hiring an unemployed person under a law Gov. Martin O’Malley signed Thursday.

The state also qualified for $127 million in federal stimulus money to pay unemployment benefits to the jobless under another new law. The emergency legislation goes into effect immediately.

Unemployment insurance reform and the jobs tax credit had been key pieces of O’Malley’s legislative agenda to help the state’s businesses recover [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Summer jobs will be roughly as plentiful for teens and college students this year as they were in 2009, according to research released on Wednesday by a popular hourly job online site.

Twenty-nine percent of hiring managers said they planned to add the same number of students this summer, compared with 25 percent who said the same last year, the survey commissioned by SnagAJob.com showed.

Some 18 percent expect to hire fewer such workers, down [...]