Stocks suffered through their worst week since September, with the major benchmark stock indexes falling more than 2.3% except for the Global Dow, which gained less than 1.0%. Traders faced trade issues, policy changes in government, and a slightly weaker-than-expected jobs report. Each of the market sectors declined last week, except for health care. Information technology dropped more than 7.4%. Last Friday, reassurance from the Fed Chair that the economy remained solid helped quell some of the angst among investors, which helped push bond yields higher at week’s end. Crude oil prices rallied on Friday but not enough to prevent a weekly decline of over 4.0%.
Last Week’s Economic News
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- Employment rose by 151,000 in February, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- According to the latest S&P Global survey of purchasing managers, the manufacturing sector accelerated in February, which saw notable increases in production and new orders. Output charges also rose to a two-year high in February.
- The services sector continued to expand in February with the S&P Global US Services PMI® Business Activity Index recorded 51.0 in February, marking the tenth straight month of expansion but at the slowest rate of growth since November 2023.
- The latest report on the international trade in goods and services deficit, released March 6, is for January and revealed that the trade deficit was $131.4 billion in January.
- The national average retail price for regular gasoline was $3.078 per gallon on March 3.
- For the week ended March 1, there were 221,000 new claims for unemployment insurance.
- Employment rose by 151,000 in February, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Eye on the Week Ahead
The latest reports on inflation are available this week with the releases of the Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index. The CPI was 3.0% for the year ended in January, while the PPI was up 3.5% from the year before.
Have a nice week!
Sincerely,
Robert G. Carpenter