Consumer Confidence Dips In October As Virus Spreads In US

U.S. consumer confidence dipped slightly in October as a new wave of coronavirus cases appeared across the country.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday its consumer confidence index fell to a reading of 100.9, from 101.8 in September, but still remains well below pre-pandemic levels. This month's moderate decline follows a sharp rise in September.

Consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity in the U.S., so a decline in confidence gets a lot of attention from economists, especially as the U.S. heads into the crucial holiday shopping season.

Consumer confidence tumbled to 85.7 in April as large swaths of the country went into lockdown to check infections. Factory orders better than expected: Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose a stronger-than-expected 1.9% in September with a key category that tracks business investment showing a solid gain as well.

The uptick in orders followed a smaller 0.4% increase in August and was the best gain since an 11.8% surge in July, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Eli Lilly still supports possible COVID-19 treatment: Eli Lilly continues to back a potential COVID-19 treatment despite research showing that it may not work on hospitalized patients.

The drugmaker said Tuesday it remains confident its drug may stop COVID from developing in other patients. Researchers are still studying the drug in mild to moderately ill patients, to try to prevent hospitalization and severe illness.

The potential treatment also is being studied as a preventive measure given to residents and employees of long-term care locations.

U.S. government officials said Monday that they put an early end to a study testing the antibody drug in hospitalized patients because it doesn't seem to be helping them.

T-Mobile getting into streaming business: Yet another service provider is jumping into the TV streaming wars. This time it's T-Mobile and its TVision service with live news, entertainment and sports channels, starting at $10 a month.

T-Mobile says it's aiming to offer a simpler and and cheaper service for people dissatisfied with cable. But it's entering a crowded field. And most similar streaming services have found it difficult to sustain low prices over time.

TVision will offer three branches of its service. TVision Live will have live news, entertainment and sports channels at three tiers priced at $40, $50 and $60, depending on how many sports channels you want.

The $40 option offers around 30 channels including ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News, ESPN, and Fox Sports Networks.

Then there's TVision Vibe, which is $10 a month and includes about 30 channels from AMC, Discovery and Viacom - but no sports. And TVision Channels, which lets you sign up for individual channel streaming services, starting with just three: Starz, Showtime and Epix.

Big deal between chip makers: Advanced Micro Devices is buying Xilinx for $35 billion in an all-stock deal that will combine the two Silicon Valley chip makers and accelerate an already rapid-fire pace of mergers and buyouts in the industry.

The deal announced Tuesday puts AMD in a place it wants to be; competing more fiercely with Intel at a time when a global pandemic is driving demand for tech ever higher.

- Associated Press

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