Ahead of President Trump's State of the Union address, the state of America's economy is in the spotlight.
America's trade deficit jumped to $70 billion in December, according to new data out Thursday, much of that fueled by a drop in gold exports.
Overall, last year's deficit was just over $900 billion, down just slightly from 2024.
Economists say President Trump's tariffs haven't substantially altered America's trade imbalance yet.
"This idea that were going to see a significant reduction in the trade deficit, especially over a short period of time — definitely not the case," said Abby Hall, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Tampa.
RELATED STORY | Inflation cools to 2.4%, closer to Fed's target
206,000 people filed jobless claims last week, the fewest since early January.
Those numbers beat analysts' predictions, and they're coming on the heels of a stronger-than-expected January jobs report.
But data from the past year points to a labor market that's seen slow hiring with the exception of a few select areas.
"The bulk of jobs creation's really been focused in two areas, health care and social assistance," said Mark Hamrick, Senior Economic Analyst with Bankrate. "So if you're working in those sectors, you probably are feeling pretty good. If you're working elsewhere, perhaps not so good."
RELATED NEWS | More older Americans are returning to work over finances, survey finds
Meanwhile, Amazon dethroned Walmart in earnings for the final quarter of last year.
Walmart still reported strong figures Thursday and noted the majority of its gains came from higher-income households.
Its CEO John Furner says many lower-income Americans are still struggling.
"For households earning below $50,000, we continue to see the wallets are stretched, and in some cases, people are managing spending paycheck to paycheck," said Furner.
