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This Week: Consumer borrowing, job openings, Airbnb IPO

The Associated Press

December 7, 2020 at 7:15AM

A look at some of the key business events and economic indicators upcoming this week:

JUST CHARGE IT

The Federal Reserve issues its October snapshot of U.S. consumer borrowing Monday.

The tally, which excludes mortgages and other loans secured by real estate, is expected to show consumer borrowing increased by $17 billion in October from a gain of $16.2 billion the previous month. Economists closely watch consumer borrowing patterns for signals of whether households are willing to take on more debt to finance consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of economic activity.

Consumer credit, monthly change, seasonally adjusted, billions of dollars:

May -13.4

June 19.7

July 14.7

Aug. -6.9

Sept. 16.2

Oct. (est.) 17.0

Source: FactSet

HELP WANTED?

Economists expect that a survey of job openings in October will show little change from the previous month.

They predict the Labor Department will report Wednesday that job postings held steady at 6.44 million in October. The number of job postings have increased since the spring, when the pandemic forced broad business shutdowns. At the same time, other data show employers are scaling back hiring, which slowed in November for the fifth-straight month.

JOLTS job openings, in millions, by month:

May 5.37

June 6.0

July 6.70

Aug. 6.35

Sept. 6.44

Oct. (est.) 6.44

Source: FactSet

GOING PUBLIC

Airbnb is set to make its stock market debut.

The home-sharing company, which boasts more than 7 million listings on its platform run by 4 million hosts worldwide, is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Thursday under the symbol "ABNB." Airbnb expects to raise about $2.6 billion through the sale of nearly 52 million shares priced between $44 and $50 each. The company delayed its plans for an IPO when the coronavirus pandemic crippled global travel in the spring.