The Markets Shortest ever. Last week, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finally announced the official dates for the recession that occurred in 2020. Economic activity peaked in February 2020 and bottomed in April 2020. That makes the pandemic recession the shortest in American history. According to the NBER, “The recent downturn had different …
The Markets Major U.S. stock indices moved lower last week: Y-T-D 1-Year 3-Year 5-Year 10-Year Standard & Poor’s 500 (Domestic Stocks) -1.0% 15.2% 34.6% 15.6% 14.8% 12.7% Dow Jones Global ex-U.S. 0.0 7.0 27.3 6.6 7.8 3.5 10-year Treasury Note (Yield Only) 1.3 NA 0.6 2.9 1.6 2.9 Gold (per ounce) 1.0 -3.4 0.9 13.7 …
The MarketsThere was a gapers’ block in financial markets last week as equity investors slowed to see what the United States Treasury bond market was up to. U.S. Treasury bonds rallied last week. Yields on 10-year Treasuries dropped from 1.43 percent at the start of the week to 1.27 percent on Thursday. The rally was …
The Markets What begins with the letter “I”? Infrastructure is essential and sometimes taken for granted. Pipes carry drinking water to our homes, offices, and healthcare facilities, and carry away sewage and wastewater. Highways, airports, railroads, waterways, roads, and bridges make efficient transportation of goods and safe travel possible. Energy systems and transmission lines keep …
The Markets Is that a hawk? The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) met last week. They get together eight times a year to review current economic and financial conditions, assess risks to price stability and economic growth, and adjust monetary policy accordingly. When the Federal Reserve raises the fed funds rate to keep inflation …
The Markets What do markets hate? They hate uncertainty, and recently there has been plenty of it. Some of the questions plaguing economists and pundits include: Why aren’t people returning to work? Americans, like people in other parts of the world, have not been rejoining the workforce at the pace many had anticipated. One of …
The Markets
It wasn’t just the price of pork chops.
Last week, as investors weighed the news, strong corporate earnings were offset by higher grocery prices and rising numbers of global coronavirus cases.
The Markets Zoom, zoom, zoom. Big economies tend to recover from recessions about as quickly as semi-trucks accelerate from stop lights. In other words, recovery tends to be slow. That may not be the case this time. “Everything in this economic cycle is happening at great speed. That is in part a reflection of the …
March 1 2021 The Markets Students of financial markets may have noted a historically unusual event last week. On Thursday, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes briefly matched the dividend yield for the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index. This type of convergence is uncommon. In normal times, the yield on 10-year Treasuries tends …