By Tom Burnett CFA On July 2, 2021, the Bureau Of Labor Statistics announced that net payrolls grew by 850,000 in the month of June. The figures for April and May were revised upward by a total of 15,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.9% and there were 9.5 million job seekers. Total employment…
By Tom Burnett CFA On July 1, 2021, the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) released its Concluding Statement following a detailed staff review of the current economic and political environment. The following projections are from this Concluding Statement. Real GDP is expected to grow by 7.0% in…
By Tom Burnett CFA The June 17, 2021 FACTSET report on earnings estimates for the S/P 500 Index companies reflects the growing analyst optimism about the corporate earnings picture. The consensus estimates for the second quarter are now 61% above the Q2 2020 earnings results that were badly damaged by…
By Tom Burnett CFA On June 16, 2021 the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee released its monthly statement on interest rate policies and economic projections. Importantly, the Fed did not change its goal of holding the fed funds rate to a range of 0 to 0.25%. In addition, the Fed disclosed that it…
By Tom Burnett CFA On June 15, 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its May report on Producer Price Index (“PPI”) movements. The Index rose 0.8% in May, after rising 0.6% in April and 1.0% in March. The Index advanced 6.6% for the 12 months ended in May, the largest increase since 12-month…