Weekly Market Recap – December 31, 2020 In the Markets This shortened holiday week was also short on economic statistics. The weekly initial jobless claims were 835,000 vs. 803,000 the previous week. Pandemic statistics are continuing to worsen; the US death toll is now more than 350,000. The stimulus bill was signed. The Brexit trade

Weekly Market Recap – December 24, 2020 In the Markets After a couple of weekly reports showing that new jobless claims were increasing, the figure fell with 803,000 requests for unemployment benefits. The previous week had 892,000 initial claims. Americans who continue to be out of work now number 20.36 million; there were 20.65 million

Weekly Market Recap – December 18, 2020 In the Markets Weekly initial jobless claims shot higher to 885,000; there were 862,000 new claims the previous week. The monthly report of the index of leading economic indicators advanced 0.6%, the lowest change in five months. Industrial production rose 0.4%, weaker than the prior month (+0.9%). The

Weekly Market Recap – December 11, 2020 In the Markets Jobless claims were sharply higher, coming in at 853,000, 18.4% higher than the average of 720,000 expected by Wall Street analysts. Consumer credit for October increased by $7billion, nearly half of September’s $15 billion. Wholesale inventories increased 1.1%, up slightly from the previous month’s 0.9%

Weekly Market Recap – December 4, 2020 In the Markets The week ended with US coronavirus statistics hitting unprecedented levels. New cases numbered more than 210,000, hospitalizations exceeded 100,000 and the death toll surpassed 275,000 nationwide. On employment, analysts’ average expectation for November non-farm payrolls was 432,000, but the figure came in at 245,000. In

Weekly Market Recap – November 27, 2020 In the Markets After a month of new jobless claims decreasing, the tally reversed direction with 778,000 requests for unemployment benefits. The previous week had 748,000. The total number of Americans who continue to be out of work is now 20.45 million (vs. 20.32 million.) Economic data releases

Weekly Market Recap – November 20, 2020 In the Markets The retail sales report for October increased by 0.3%, down from September’s 1.6%. Industrial production rose 1.1% compared to the prior month (-0.4%). Nationwide unemployment figures indicate that the jobless total eased to 20.32 million from the previous week’s 21.16 million. 742,000 of those were

Weekly Market Recap – November 13, 2020 In the Markets Economic news for the week ending November 13th indicated a slight improvement in the employment statistics. The number is now 21.16 million unemployed compared with 21.53 million the previous week. New jobless claims came in at 709,000 vs. 751,000 from a week earlier. Consumer prices

Weekly Market Recap – November 6, 2020 In the Markets Data from Johns Hopkins University showed 126,742 new US cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. This marked the fourth day in one week of more than 100,000 new reported cases. Sixteen states have indicated record high COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to the Covid Tracking Project. In the

Weekly Market Recap – October 30, 2020 In the Markets Third-quarter GDP growth was a record +33.1% vs. a 31.4% decline in Q2. There were 751,000 new jobless claims reported, compared to 791,000 the previous week, for a total of 22.65 million unemployed workers, down from 23.07 million. Personal income rose 0.9%, compared with the