By Tom Burnett CFA On March 17, 2021, the Federal Reserve concluded its two-day March meeting with a series of announcements. Included in the public statement was a revised set of economic projections. The Fed now expects 2021 real GDP growth of 6.5%, up from an earlier projection of 4.3%. Inflation…
By Tom Burnett CFA Looking at the performance return data (March 9, 2021 issue of the Wall Street Journal) for the first ten weeks of this year, we see a clear pattern emerging. Investors are moving out of bonds and into select groups of equities, reversing many of the investment patterns of the last…
By Tom Burnett CFA On March 5, 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its Employment Report for the February month. Job growth was very strong as total employment increased by 379,000 to 150.0 million. The unemployment rate remained at 6.2% from the prior month. The number of unemployed…
By Tom Burnett CFA The big story in the markets for 2021 is the widespread increase in commodity prices through late February (all prices are sourced to the February 23, 2021 Wall Street Journal). Led by the Energy sector, prices have recovered sharply from the Covid-19 impact during the 2020…
By Tom Burnett CFA The February 12, 2021 issue of the FACTSET earnings report (for the S/P 500 Index) now sees consensus earnings growth of 2.9% in the 2020 fourth quarter, compared to the year-earlier quarter. If achieved, that positive rate of earnings growth would follow three consecutive quarters…