Week Ending March 8th
Markets were mixed last week with the S&P 500 returning -0.22%. The Dow and Nasdaq underperformed with losses of -0.85% & -1.15%, respectively. Small Caps continue their outperformance with the Russell 2000 returning 0.34%. Utilities and Materials were last weeks winning sectors with underperformance from Consumer Discretionary and Tech.
January’s JOLTS Report continued to show a decline in the amount of Job Openings, down from 9.026M to 8.863M. According to a Reuters Poll this number was below analyst expectations of 9M. The good news of the report came from the revision section for December, Openings were revised lower. Both Quits and Hires were revised higher, which is consistent with a strong economy.
Non-farm Payrolls for February were not as positive. The unemployment rate ticked up 0.2% to 3.9%, despite this increase the economy still added 275k jobs. The added jobs occurred in the Health Care, Government, Food & Drinking places, Social Assistance, and Transportation. The uptick in unemployment was primarily led by an increase to the amount of permanent job losers. Additionally, both December & January’s job growth were revised lower. This weaker than expected news drove markets lower during Friday trading.
Super Tuesday: Looking ahead to November it appears that the 2024 Presidential Election will be between Trump and Biden, leaving many people with a sense of déjà vu.
Looking ahead CPI for February (3/12) – likely to be the most anticipated macro news for this week. The week is set to end with PPI & Retail Sales (3/14), and Michigan Sentiment Survey (3/15).
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