The pandemic triggered a two-month recession last year that began in February 2020 and ended in April, making it the shortest on record.

Nasdaq Inc. is teaming up with a group of banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to spin out its marketplace for shares of private companies. Under current regulations, such deals are typically limited to accredited investors.

In June, the average transaction price for a new vehicle was $39,942, an increase of 14% from June 2020. The average transaction price for a used vehicle was $27,984, up 24% from June 2020.

Blackstone will enter into a long-term agreement with AIG Life to manage an initial $50 billion in assets, with the amount increasing to nearly $100 billion over the next six years. The private-equity firm would also pay $2.2 billion for a 9.9% stake in AIG’s life-insurance and retirement-services unit.

U.S. consumer prices continued to accelerate in June at the fastest pace in 13 years as the recovery from the pandemic gained steam. The consumer-price index increased 5.4% in June from a year earlier. Excluding volatile food and energy categories, prices rose 4.5% from a year earlier, the most in 30 years.

Lenders originated some three million auto loans and leases in March, up about 53% from the same month in 2020 and the highest monthly figure on record. Auto balances for new originations also hit a record of $73.6 billion in March, up 59% from a year prior.

A recent survey U.S. individual investors found these people expect to earn 17.3% this year, after inflation. That’s more than twice the return on U.S. stocks since 1926, which has averaged 7.1% annually after inflation.

Worker filings for jobless claims fell to 364,000 last week, reaching a new pandemic low as layoffs continue to recede.

Economists and business executives now expect supply-chain disruptions and key labor shortages to persist through the end of the year.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Sunday screened more than 2 million travelers at airports – the highest number since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.