EQUITY MARKETS
US
S&P500 -0.44%(2,372.60); NASDAQ -0.15% (5,861.73); DJIA -0.49% (20,902.98)
This week’s reports:
- January’s Consumer Credit Change fell $8.8B from December’s $14.76B. The non-revolving credit, rose at an annual rate of 5.5% from 4.9% previously, but revolving credit contracted at an annual rate of 4.6% following a 4.3% increase the previous month. There was a sharp decline in consumer credit outstanding to repository institutions on the month while there was a big jump in Federal government borrowing which suggests student loans increased strongly on the month.
- February’s Unemployment Rate fell to 4.7% from January’s +4.8%. Labor Force Participation Rate rose to 63% from January’s 62.9%. Nonfarm Payrolls rose to 235K from January’s upwardly revised +238K.
- Q4 2016 Unit Labor Costs remained unchanged from Q3’s +1.7%.
- February’s Average Weekly Hours remained unchanged at +34.4. Average Hourly Earnings remained unchanged from January’s +2.8%.
- January’s Wholesale Inventories fell by 0.2% from December’s -0.1%.
- January’s Factory Orders rose by 1.2% m/m from December’s +1.3% m/m.
- Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending March 3th rose by 20K to +243K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending February 24th fell by 6K to 2,058K.
- US stocks climbed Friday after February data showed US employers posted the best back-to-back monthly increase in payrolls since July, the jobs data cleared the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates without forcing it to accelerate the pace for future tightening.
- The S&P 500 slipped 0.4 percent to 2,372.60 in its first weekly decline since the period ended January 20.