Insights

 U.S. GDP grew at an annualized pace of just 2% last quarter, a marked slowdown from last quarter’s 6.7% (Figure 1). Contracted auto production sliced around 2% off growth, and concerns over the Delta variant slowed demand and the return of workers to the labor force. Third quarter growth d …

Thirty percent of the S&P 500 will report third quarter earnings this week. Based on earnings already in and analyst expectations, earnings are expected to grow 32.7% compared to last year as corporations continue to bounce back from a COVID-led earnings decline.

Three economic data points released last week indicated the economy continues to rebound despite lingering challenges from the Delta variant. Job openings, which lag other measures by one month, fell to 10.4 million. Declines in demand for leisure and hospitality jobs pulled the openings ba …

Many investors are embracing the $160 billion gaming market. The industry is larger than the $43 billion box office, $60 billion video streaming and $19 billion music businesses combined.

For the second consecutive month, the U.S. job market created far fewer jobs than expected. September’s report showed only 194,000 jobs were created, missing expectations by nearly 300,000. A deeper look at the data shows the report wasn’t as bad as indicated by the overall number.

Equity markets struggled in September as interest rates, inflation concerns, and developments in China all weighed on stock market averages. The S&P 500 surrendered 4.7% as large-cap growth companies led the market lower. Large-cap growth has been the top performing style box since the …

The Federal Reserve met last week, and Chair Jay Powell indicated tapering this year is more likely than not. The decision on when to reduce the central bank’s purchases of government-backed bonds will likely be affected by the employment report released a week from Friday. If labor market …

 Two U.S. economic reports provided reassuring news about the economy. The inflation trend moderated in August. Consumer price inflation (CPI) rose 0.3%, down from 0.5% the previous month and below estimates of a 0.4% increase (Figure 1). Excluding food and energy, prices increased just 0.1%.

July job openings increased to 10.9 million, up 779,000 from June. The record number suggests weaker August job growth was partly related to a low supply of workers and demand for workers remains robust.

 The U.S. economy produced just 235,000 new jobs in August, missing expectations of 725,000. Unemployment dipped to 5.2%. Average hourly earnings rose 0.6%, partly because wages continue to rise more rapidly compared to the pre-pandemic pace.