3/12– Weekly Economic Highlights
President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion fiscal relief plan yesterday, bringing the total amount of pandemic-related fiscal relief legislation in the last year to about $5.5 trillion. At this time last year, financial markets were in turmoil amid an uncertain global economic outlook. Over the past year, robust fiscal spending along with the Federal Reserve’s […]
3/5– Weekly Economic Highlights
U.S. nonfarm payrolls were stronger than expected in February, up 379,000, versus the Bloomberg consensus forecast of 200,000. January payrolls were also revised up by 117,000. Payrolls in the leisure and hospitality sector improved in February and were up 355,000, following a combined decline of 523,000 in December and January. The unemployment rate declined to […]
2/26– Weekly Economic Highlights
Treasury yields climbed this week, with the 10-year Treasury yield rising roughly 12 basis points from last Friday to 1.45% (up 54 basis points year-to-date), and the 5-year Treasury yield rising 19 basis points week-over-week to 0.77% (up 41 basis points year-to-date), at the time of this report. Meanwhile, the short end of the Treasury […]
2/19– Weekly Economic Highlights
Following a somewhat sluggish holiday shopping season, retail sales picked up in January assisted by another round of federal relief checks. On a year-over-year basis, retail sales were up 7.4% in January versus up 2.5% in December. On a month-over-month basis, retail sales jumped 5.3% in January, following a 1.0% decline in December and a […]
2/12– Weekly Economic Highlights
During a virtual presentation for the Economic Club of New York this week, Fed Chair Powell cautioned that the labor market remains a long way from a full recovery. He noted that the reported unemployment rate is dramatically understating the weakness, due in part to a significant decline in labor force participation. He said the […]
2/5– Weekly Economic Highlights
The labor market remained under pressure in January. U.S. nonfarm payrolls were up just 49,000 in January, versus the Bloomberg consensus forecast of 105,000. December payrolls were revised down by 87,000 to ‑227,000. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the increase in January payrolls was led by an 80,900 net gain in temporary help services and […]
1/29– Weekly Economic Highlights
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept monetary policy unchanged at their meeting this week as expected, with the fed funds target rate in a range of 0.0% to 0.25%. The Fed also continues to purchase $80 billion of Treasuries per month, and $40 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities per month. The decision among voting […]
1/22– Weekly Economic Highlights
Housing market momentum remained solid heading into 2021. Total housing starts increased 5.8% in December to an annual pace of 1,669,000 (the strongest rate since 2006). Single family starts jumped 12.0% to an annualized rate of 1,338,000, while multi-family starts declined 13.6% to an annualized rate of 331,000. On a year-over-year basis, total housing starts […]
1/15– Weekly Economic Highlights
Retail sales momentum slowed during the holiday shopping season. On a year-over-year basis, retail sales were up 2.9% in December versus 3.7% in November. On a month-over-month basis, retail sales declined 0.7% in December, following a 1.4% decline in November. The month-over-month declines were broad-based in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, with outsized declines […]
1/8– Weekly Economic Highlights
U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined by 140,000 in December. It was the first monthly decline in nonfarm payrolls since April of last year and came in well below expectations for a 50,000 gain. The monthly decline was led by the leisure and hospitality sector which experienced a 498,000 net decline in payrolls in December, along with […]