Weekly Market Comments 11-02-18 ENG
US
S&P500 -5.16%(2,619.55); NASDAQ -5.06% (6,874.49); DJIA -5.21% (24,190.90)
This week’s reports:
- January’s Markit Services PMI remained unchanged from December’s 53.3. Markit Composite PMI also remained unchanged from December’s 53.8.
- January’s ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI rose to 59.9 from December’s 56.0.
- December’s Consumer Credit rose by $18.45 billion from November’s +$31.02 billion. December’s credit increase was led by non-revolving debt. The annual increase in credit in 2017 was 5.4% after 6.7% gain year earlier.
- December’s Wholesale Inventories rose 0.4% from November’s +0.2%.
- Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending February 2nd fell by 9K to 221K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending January 26th fell by 33K to 1,923K.
US stocks had their worst week in two years even after Friday’s rally wiped out some of the losses. Pressure on equities came from the Treasury market, where yields spiked to a four-year high, raising concern the Federal Reserve would accelerate its rate-hike schedule, before falling back at the end of the week. The MSCI World Index had its biggest weekly drop since 2016.