John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended November 15

Rising yields

Yields of U.S. government bonds extended their recent climb, with the yield of the 10-year Treasury closing around 4.44% on Friday after briefly eclipsing the 4.50% level for the first time in more than five months. As recently as mid-September, the yield had been as low as 3.62%.

Inflation’s persistence

A monthly Consumer Price Index reading came in slightly above the previous month’s figure, with October’s annual rate of 2.6% topping September’s 2.4% result. While the latest reading was in line with economists’ expectations, it was a further indication of recently uneven progress in bringing inflation closer to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 2.0% long-term target.

Retail resilience

.A report released on Friday showed that U.S. retail sales topped expectations by rising 0.4% in October relative to the previous month; in addition, September’s initial reading was revised sharply upward with the availability of further data. Another encouraging sign came on Thursday, when new claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in six months.

Earnings scorecard

Major retail companies reported results as quarterly earnings season neared an end. As of Friday, analysts were expecting S&P 500 companies overall to post a 5.4% third-quarter earnings increase compared with the same quarter a year earlier, according to FactSet. That figure was up from the 4.2% growth rate that analysts had expected entering earnings season on September 30.

Source: https://www.jhinvestments.com/weekly-market-recap#market-moving-news