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John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended November 19th

November 24, 2021

Retail resilience

Despite inflation concerns and the Delta variant’s spread, U.S. shoppers continued to spend at an increasing pace in October, extending a recent run of strong retail numbers. Sales at retail stores, restaurants, and online sellers rose a seasonally adjusted 1.7% compared with the previous month—the biggest such monthly gain since March of this year.

Earnings wrap

Figures from the just-completed quarterly earnings season show that profits at S&P 500 companies climbed an average 39% compared with the same quarter a year earlier, according to FactSet. That’s the third-largest quarterly increase since 2010. Materials posted the strongest earnings growth at the sector level, surging by 90%.

Mixed market

The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ posted modest gains, recovering from their small losses in the previous week. The Dow, however, slipped in a week that produced strong gains in the consumer discretionary and information technology sectors but pullbacks in materials, energy, and financials.


Wednesday data feast

Wednesday will yield a bumper crop of economic reports in a holiday-shortened week. Releases are scheduled on everything from quarterly GDP to U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes, weekly unemployment claims, and more. U.S. markets will be closed Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday, and markets will close early for the day on Friday.

 

Source: https://wmr.jhinvestments.com/