MARKET MONDAY – February 6th, 2023 (read below)
Stocks closed in the red Friday but up for the week. The S&P was positive for two consecutive weeks (and 4 out of the last 5 weeks). The NASDAQ managed to close in positive territory 5 weeks in a row.
Year to date (YTD) (a)
S&P 500 +7.73%
NASDAQ +14.72%
Dow 30 +2.35%
The Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds rate by 25bps (.25%) last week taking it to a range of 4.5%-4.75%. This is the 8th increase since the Fed started the rate hike process in March 2022. (b)
The International Monetary Fund announced last week that the global economy will grow by 2.9%. This represents a .2 percentage point increase from the previous forecast in October. (c)
The Jobs Report on Friday beat expectations by a wide margin. U.S. payrolls were expected to come in at 185,000. However, the job report earned a surprise of 517k new jobs for the previous month.
The unemployment rate decreased from 3.5% to 3.4% (the lowest since 1969).
Wages decelerated to a 4.4% increase Year over Year(y/y) versus last months expectation of a 4.9% increase.
Last months Consumer Price Index (inflation) for all items y/y came in at a 6.5% increase.
(d)
To conclude…
While the job market stays strong and inflations continues to fall, it is looking like a better chance for an economic soft landing. These economic indicators are the indicators the Federal Reserve is closely watching that influences their decision on rate hikes.
See you next week!
a. Yahoo finance
b. CMEgroup Fed Watchtool
c. CNBC Economy
d. U.S. bureau of labor statistics
