There was an onslaught of data last week, which led to gains. Should more be expected with the coming earnings season?
Monday S&P 500 0.27%| NASDAQ 1.09%
ISM Manufacturing unexpectedly slipped and remains in contractionary territory. The weaker economic data would typically signal lower rates as rate cut expectations would increase. To the contrary, 10-year treasuries rose on the day. In the face of weak economic data, the start of the quarter brought optimism towards the next three months.
Tuesday S&P 500 0.62% | NASDAQ .84%
JOLTs job openings rose more than expected to 8.14M openings. For perspective, there were 6.6M unemployed as of the May report. The strong jobs data did not deter markets, though; this may be because the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Chair, J. Powell, spoke on the day. He indicated that progress is being made towards their inflation target. This is the ‘secret sauce’ needed to justify future rate cuts.
Wednesday S&P 500 0.51% | NASDAQ 0.88%
Initial jobless claims rose for the week to 238K from 234K; the level remains elevated, albeit from all-time lows. Factory orders unexpectedly slipped into the negative on the month. Additionally, ISM Services unexpectedly slipped into contractionary territory. This is all bad news for economic production, so why did the markets rise? Interest rates fell as this data increases the likelihood that the FRB will lower rates sooner than expected. The heightened odds are now calling for a .25% cut in September and December, according to CME FedWatch.
Thursday S&P 500 -% | NASDAQ -%
Happy Independence Day!
Friday S&P 500 0.54% | NASDAQ 0.90%
Happy Jobs Friday! The unemployment rate rose to 4.1%, Nonfarm payrolls beat expectations, and participation rose to 62.6% from 62.5%, all for June. The unemployment rate went up even though we added 206K jobs??? Participation went up so, with more people in the market, the rate can go up even as jobs are added. This is a positive signal that workers are returning to the work force. The rise on equity markets, however, was on hopes that economic weakness would be enough for an FRB rate cut.
Conclusion S&P 500 1.95% | NASDAQ 3.55%
This was a busy week for economic data, especially for a holiday shortened week. We got weaker Jobs, manufacturing, Services, and Factory orders. The weakness led to stronger markets on hopes the FRB will cut rates BEFORE a recession can materialize. The coming week starts second quarter earnings. Valuations are stretched (S&P 500 P/E: 28.94) and economic production is weak, very little should be expected from this season. This could be the start of volatility that would lead into the Autumn.
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Markets continued to see turbulence last week. Is there something to it, or a blip on the radar?
Monday
The week opened on a positive note as the S&P 500 shrugged off the prior week’s losses and gained 0.25% on the day. The advance was spear headed by an advance in commodity prices. This follows recent hurricane activity in the southeast.
Tuesday
Markets resumed the recent trend of falling. The S&P 500 shed 0.6% on the day, while bonds saw a safe haven bid. Core Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 4.0% YoY (Aug), slower than the 4.2% expected. Slowing inflationary pressure could be attributed to failing consumer sentiment but could also be easing supply side constraints.
Wednesday
The seesaw continued as markets rose sharply on Wednesday. Sharpley is relative, as the rise was 0.9%; as of late changes in value of more than 0.5% have become sharp moves. VIX is supposed to be forward looking volatility for the next month. When VIX is at 20 (currently) that would imply an expectation that moves will be less than 1%/day.
Thursday
Retail sales unexpectedly jumped, which caused a down day for equities. This is a continuation of the good news is bad news that has been occurring as of late. Unemployment data was also released on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims increased from 312K to 332K. This was largely expected with regional hurricane activity tamping down job activity. So, it carried little impact on market activity.
Friday
The week ended with a stumble as all, but one major index (including bond indices) fell on the day. Consumer sentiment remained a tepid 71.0 in September. For frame of reference the lowest level during 2020 was 71.8 in April. The concern is that a weak consumer will lead to a weak economy as consumption makes up approximately 70% of economic activity.
Conclusion
It was a week to forget for markets as the S&P 500 fell for the second week. While the weekly loss was only a little more than a half percent, the fall from the peak is now about 2.5%. A true correction would be a 10% fall, which is still a long way off. Looming ahead, however, is a debt ceiling fight, variant news (always), the rest of hurricane season, consumption concerns, and a Federal Reserve Board (FRB) meeting this week. Nothing to see here…
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Any and all third-party posts or responses to this blog do not reflect the views of the firm and have not been reviewed by the firm for completeness or accuracy.