Weekly Market Recap – July 10, 2020 In the Markets Thursday\\\’s labor department figures stated that 1.4 million Americans applied for unemployment insurance for the first time last week and more than 19 million people are still receiving unemployment benefits. The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that consumer borrowing declined by $18.3 billion in May, a

Weekly Market Recap – July 2, 2020 In the Markets After US employers added a record 4.8 million jobs in June, the national unemployment rate dropped to 11.1%. However, many states are reporting record increases in new Covid-19 cases and a growing death toll. Our weekly recap includes a few noteworthy quarterly changes because the

Weekly Market Recap – June 26, 2020 In the Markets After weeks of news stories dominated by better economic numbers and coverage of re-openings, along with the focus on developments surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, the spotlight is on COVID-19 once again. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal’s lead headline was “Virus Spread Accelerates

Weekly Market Recap – June 19, 2020 In the Markets Recent data releases are giving investors signs that the reopening is stimulating the economy. Retail sales jumped 17.7% in May; the previous monthly change had been down 14.7%. Industrial production increased by 1.4% versus the negative 12.5% reported for April. 1.5 million jobless claims were

Weekly Market Recap – June 12, 2020 In the Markets The week for stock markets started off with a bang as the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday sessions took the NASDAQ Composite to three consecutive all time highs. By the end of the week, however, the exuberance was gone. Also, the NBER panel reported that the

Weekly Market Recap – June 5, 2020 In the Markets On Thursday, the European Central Bank boosted its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program by €600 billion ($676 billion). This additional bond-buying stimulus brings the total to €1.35 trillion ($1.53 trillion), and the plan is being extended to June 2121. The euro soared to $1.135 on the

Weekly Market Recap – May 29, 2020 In the Markets Restrictions have been easing in major US cities, and businesses are coming back, though worldwide coronavirus cases hit 6 million. On Thursday, the labor department reported 2.1 new jobless claims; one in every four American workers, more than 40 million, have filed for unemployment since

Weekly Market Recap – May 22, 2020 In the Markets With 2.4 million new unemployment claims this week, bringing the total to 38.6 million since mid-March, this gauge of joblessness would look like a flattening curve on a graph. This aspect of the data contributed to investor confidence in the stock market. Another positive impetus

Weekly Market Recap – May 15, 2020 In the Markets Stock market investors pushed the indices lower this past week, due to a combination of pandemic news, a rekindled US-China trade war campaign and more negative economic data. Retail sales plunged 16.4% in April (worse than the expected 12% setback), registering the largest drop since

Weekly Market Recap – May 8, 2020 In the Markets This week’s statistics gave investors another snapshot of stresses in the economy and society, as a whole. The Department of Commerce reported that the US trade gap rose to $44.4 billion in March, wider than February’s gap of $39.8 billion. According to the Federal Reserve,