John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended November 17th

Inflation slowdown

U.S. inflation continued to moderate in October, as a measure of prices excluding the volatile food and energy categories rose at the slowest annual pace since September 2021. The so-called core rate was 4.0%, which was slightly below most economists’ forecasts—as was the headline number of 3.2%, factoring in food and energy.

Yield decline

Tuesday’s drop in the yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond was the steepest for a single day in about eight months. After closing around 4.63% on Monday, the yield closed at 4.44% on Tuesday, as that morning’s lower-than-expected inflation reading triggered a shift in the interest-rate outlook.

Shopping slowdown

U.S. consumers trimmed their spending ahead of the holiday shopping season as U.S. retail sales slipped 0.1% in October compared with the same month a year earlier. The result marked the first retail sales decline in seven months and followed a 0.9% increase in September.

Oil’s slippery week

An increase in U.S. crude inventories was among the factors that sent oil prices to their fourth weekly decline in a row. The latest week was volatile, as the price of U.S. crude rose to nearly $80 per barrel on Tuesday, only to drop below $73 on Thursday and rebound to nearly $76 on Friday. The price was around $89 as recently as October 20.

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