Weekly Market Recap – August 28, 2020 In the Markets Initial jobless claims were above 1 million again (1,006,000), and 35 states have been approved for the enhanced unemployment benefit of $300 per week that was authorized by executive order on August 8th. A Category 4 hurricane, Laura, delivered the strongest landfall in Louisiana in

Weekly Market Recap – August 21, 2020 In the Markets The homebuilding sector is emerging as one of the few strongholds in an economy battered by the pandemic. Housing starts increased by 22.6%, the largest gain since October 2016. Apple became the first US company to reach a $2 trillion valuation. New jobless claims unexpectedly

Weekly Market Recap – August 14, 2020 In the Markets The US unemployment claims figure came in at less than one million (963,000) for the first time in 21 weeks. Core retail sales rose 1.9%, which was higher than the 1.2% expectation; sales at stores and restaurants have now risen for three straight months after

Weekly Market Recap – August 7, 2020 In the Markets US employers added 1.8 million jobs in July. The unemployment rate decreased to 10.2%. The new jobless benefit filings for the prior week fell to 1.2 million claims. Less than half of the job loss caused by the pandemic has been recovered. Congress made no progress

Weekly Market Recap – July 31, 2020 In the Markets According to a Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) release on Thursday, the US economy contracted at a record rate of 32.9% in the second quarter of 2020. The weekly jobless report showed another increase, with 1.43 million Americans filing new claims. On Friday, Fitch announced

Weekly Market Recap – July 24, 2020 In the Markets The week started with the European Union agreeing to a €1.6 trillion pandemic recovery strategy based on the sale of hundreds of billions of common debt. On Wednesday, the US abruptly ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, resulting from accusations of espionage. Filings

Weekly Market Recap – July 17, 2020 In the Markets This past week, the Department of Commerce report showed that retail sales rose 7.5% in June; this was largely attributed to online consumer purchasing of summer clothing. Another major factor was that Americans were returning to re-opened restaurants. According to the Fed\\\’s report, June industrial

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