Economic Data

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 Stock market indexes are poised to take another big step down to start this first trading session of a holiday-shortened week, with the S&P 500 down 50 points, the Dow -260 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq off by a whopping 400 points — nearly 3.5% — a half-hour before the opening bell. The continuation of the pre-Labor Day selloff has now been complicated by a couple new headlines. Tesla TSLA shares are down 15% in today’s pre-market, after we find it had not been included in the S&P 500 index, as many had predicted. […]

Stock market indexes are poised to take another big step down to start this first trading session of a holiday-shortened week, with the S&P 500 down 50 points, the Dow -260 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq off by a whopping 400 points — nearly 3.5% — a half-hour before the opening bell. The continuation of the pre-Labor Day selloff has now been complicated by a couple new headlines. Tesla TSLA shares are down 15% in today’s pre-market, after we find it had not been included in the S&P 500 index, as many had predicted […]

Friday, April 3, 2020 Looking at today’s Employment Situation from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) non-farm payrolls feels like ripping off a bandaid: it’s going to be painful, but you’ve got to get through it in order to heal. […]

Thursday, April 2, 2020 Last week brought forth an unprecedented number of Initial Jobless Claims in the U.S. for a one-week period: 3.28 million. This was up drastically from the historically low 220K-225K range we’d been enjoying the past several years […]

Wednesday, April 1, 2020 Following an historically sharp sell-off a couple weeks ago in the stock market — spurred by stay-at-home orders by local and state governments to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent drain on the day-to-day economy — job layoffs took the U.S. from a long-term robust position in its labor market to something much, much worse. Just how much worse has yet to be determined […]

Following an historically sharp sell-off a couple weeks ago in the stock market — spurred by stay-at-home orders by local and state governments to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent drain on the day-to-day economy — job layoffs took the U.S. from a long-term robust position in its labor market to something much, much worse. Just how much worse has yet to be determined. […]

Tuesday, March 31, 2020 Following record-low prints on both Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) numbers in China for February, these figures have bounced back in a big way for March. Manufacturing PMI reached 52.0 and Non-Manufacturing came in at 52.3, well up from the 35.7 and 29.6, respectively, in the previous month. (A read of 50 is the midpoint between expansion and contraction.) This represents some good news, not only for the global economy but for those of us elsewhere in the world still awaiting peak coronavirus contagion and an economic recovery beyond it […]

Following record-low prints on both Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) numbers in China for February, these figures have bounced back in a big way for March. Manufacturing PMI reached 52.0 and Non-Manufacturing came in at 52.3, well up from the 35.7 and 29.6, respectively, in the previous month. (A read of 50 is the midpoint between expansion and contraction.) This represents some good news, not only for the global economy but for those of us elsewhere in the world still awaiting peak coronavirus contagion and an economic recovery beyond it […]

Monday, March 30, 2020 Over the weekend, a major change on a national level to deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has at last been enacted: a stay-at-home order through April 30. This is expected to keep social distancing in place, which has been proven effective in limiting the spread of the disease, so as to keep from overwhelming hospitals charged with treating patients with coronavirus. […]

Over the weekend, a major change on a national level to deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has at last been enacted: a stay-at-home order through April 30. This is expected to keep social distancing in place, which has been proven effective in limiting the spread of the disease, so as to keep from overwhelming hospitals charged with treating patients with coronavirus. Also, last Friday’s signing of a $2 trillion relief package for businesses and many households, known as “Phase 3,” in taking action against the detrimental effects of coronavirus on the U.S […]

Friday, March 27, 2020 So far, confirmed global cases of COVID-19 coronavirus has surpassed half a million, with the U.S. leading the way at nearly 86K Americans having contracted the disease. Luckily, and with the help of stay-at-home orders in many places around the country, the fatality rate is currently registering around 1.5% domestically — far better than the nightmare scenarios we’ve seen in Italy (10%) and Spain (7.6%). […]

So far, confirmed global cases of COVID-19 coronavirus has surpassed half a million, with the U.S. leading the way at nearly 86K Americans having contracted the disease. […]

Thursday, March 26, 2020 Initial Jobless Claims for last week went up. They went up a lot. […]

Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Halfway through another trading week, and following the biggest single-day market gain on the Dow since 1933, pre-market futures are moderate and mixed. Yesterday’s Senate agreement on a $2 trillion relief package to deal with the coronavirus fallout, Fed maneuvers to keep markets sufficiently liquid and an ebbing of the tide of COVID-19 contagion in China are helping restore spirits. A lot of focus currently is on places like New York, where the coronavirus looks to have found its U.S. […]

Halfway through another trading week, and following the biggest single-day market gain on the Dow since 1933, pre-market futures are moderate and mixed. Yesterday’s Senate agreement on a $2 trillion relief package to deal with the coronavirus fallout, Fed maneuvers to keep markets sufficiently liquid and an ebbing of the tide of COVID-19 contagion in China are helping restore spirits. A lot of focus currently is on places like New York, where the coronavirus looks to have found its U.S. […]

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 Pre-market futures are up big at this hour, roughly 50 minutes before today’s opening bell (if there’s anyone there to ring it…). The Dow is in the green 830 points, the Nasdaq +290 and S&P 500 +90. This is an impressive start, until we once again recall we’ve seen the Dow and S&P crash 37% and 34% from recent all-time highs, respectively […]

Pre-market futures are up big at this hour, roughly 50 minutes before today’s opening bell (if there’s anyone there to ring it…). The Dow is in the green 830 points, the Nasdaq +290 and S&P 500 +90. […]

Monday, March 23, 2020 Markets have been on a wild ride already this morning in pre-market activity, swinging more than 1000 points on the Dow from deep in the red (following Friday’s -4.5% move) to up around 700 points an hour ahead of the opening bell. An announcement from the Federal Reserve that it will continue to buy Treasury bills and mortgage-back securities “in the amounts needed,” meaning, essentially, “the sky’s the limit.” These are the times when liquidation is going full-throttle. Normally, when we see things like equities trading down we see bonds go up, and vice versa […]

Markets have been on a wild ride already this morning in pre-market activity, swinging more than 1000 points on the Dow from deep in the red (following Friday’s -4.5% move) to up around 700 points an hour ahead of the opening bell. An announcement from the Federal Reserve that it will continue to buy Treasury bills and mortgage-back securities “in the amounts needed,” meaning, essentially, “the sky’s the limit.” These are the times when liquidation is going full-throttle. Normally, when we see things like equities trading down we see bonds go up, and vice versa. […]

For the second straight day we see pre-market futures up, and for the first time in six weeks we may see consecutive days in the green at the close. This feels like some sort of victory, considering the turbulent down-swing we’ve experienced over the past two weeks. […]