US
S&P500 +1.62%(2,779.03); NASDAQ +1.21% (7,645.51); DJIA +2.77% (25,316.53)
This week’s reports:
- Q1 2018 Non-farm Productivity rose by 0.4% from Q4 2017’s +0.7%. Unit Labor Cost rose 2.9% from Q4 2017’s +2.7%.
- April’s Consumer Credit rose by $9.26 billion, its smallest increase in 7 months, from March’s +$11.62 billion, as non-revolving credit growth slowed and revolving credit registered a small increase.
- May’s Markit Services PMI rose to 56.8 from April’s 55.7. Composite PMI rose to 56.6 from April’s 55.7.
- May’s ISM Non-Manufacturing Index rose to 58.6 from April’s 56.8.
- April’s Factory Orders fell 0.8% from March’s +1.7%.
- April’s Wholesale Inventories rose 0.1% from March’s zero change.
- Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending June 1st fell by 1K to 222K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending May 25th rose by 21K to 1,741K.
- US stocks climbed to weekly gains as advances across shares of consumer companies helped offset declines in the energy sector. Shares broke higher in the past week as investors have bet that threats of tighter trade policies won’t be a significant drag on global growth.
- The World Bank estimated Tuesday that the global economy will still grow 3.1% this year despite trade worries, unchanged from its forecast in January and matching the pace of growth seen in 2017, itself the strongest year since 2011.
- Americans’ wealth (household net worth) surpassed the $100 trillion mark for the first time in early 2018, as rising home prices offset the hit to households’ assets from a stock-market volatility in the first quarter.