Weekly Market Recap – July 16, 2021 COVID-19 cases are rising in all fifty U.S. states; Los Angeles reinstated its indoor mask mandate. Wildfires are raging throughout western North America, which is in its fourth consecutive heatwave. Nevada’s Lake Meade, the nation’s largest reservoir, has dropped to the lowest level ever recorded since the construction

Weekly Market Recap – July 9, 2021 Thirty-two million Americans are under excessive heat alerts, due to the high-pressure dome causing record temperatures in seven states in the West. California has ordered power and water preservation measures. The COVID-19 global death toll has passed 4 million. In the U.S., a spike in outbreaks is being

Weekly Market Recap – July 2, 2021 On Thursday, a five-year $715 billion infrastructure bill was passed by the House. In the Pacific Northwest, heat-related deaths climbed into the hundreds. On Friday, tropical storm Elsa barreled into the Caribbean. The coronavirus Delta variant has now been detected in all 50 states. The following economic statistics

Weekly Market Recap – June 25, 2021 Initial jobless claims fell by only 7,000, as the weekly tally came in at 411,000 on Thursday; 418,000 new claims were filed the previous week. New home sales were 769,000 in May, compared to 817,000 in April. Existing home sales were 5.80 million, a small change from April’s

Weekly Market Recap – June 18, 2021 The week had a number of economic reports. An unexpected statistic was the initial jobless claim tally, which had its first uptick in eight weeks: 412,000 claims compared with the previous 375,000. May retail sales declined 1.3% (vs. +0.9% in April), industrial production was +0.8% (vs. +0.1%), capacity

Weekly Market Recap – June 11, 2021 The word “Inflation” appeared frequently in Thursday’s financial press, after the May Consumer Price Index was released, showing a 5.0% surge from a year ago, the highest rate since 2008. The month-to-month CPI was +0.6% vs. the 0.8% rise in April. Other economic statistics, compared with their prior

Weekly Market Recap – June 4, 2021 The weekly initial jobless tally was 385,000 new claims vs. the previous 405,000. Nonfarm payrolls showed a 559,000 increase; Wall Street had predicted 671,000. The unemployment rate is now 5.8% vs. 6.1% a month ago. Some analysts attributed the uptick in the labor market to more Americans getting

Weekly Market Recap – May 28, 2021 Initial jobless claims fell to 406,000 vs. the previous week’s 444,000. Other economic statistics, compared to their prior levels, were as follows: the consumer confidence index was 117.2 vs. 117.5, and durable goods orders for April were down 1.3%, reversing the 1.3% rise in March. Personal income for

Weekly Market Recap – May 21, 2021 Weekly initial jobless claims sank to the lowest level since March 21, 2020, when 2.9 million first-time filings were tallied. Thursday’s report was 444,000 claims filed. Other key statistics, compared with their prior levels, were as follows: housing starts for April were 1.57 million (vs. 1.73 million), April’s

Weekly Market Recap – May 14, 2021 The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped again: 473,000 initial jobless claims were filed, compared with 507,000 the previous week. The federal budget for April showed a $226 billion deficit vs. $738 billion in March. Other economic statistics, compared with their prior level were as follows: April