John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended November 26th

Fed Chair renominated

President Biden nominated Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to serve a second four-year term as head of the nation’s central bank, lifting expectations of policy stability as the Fed seeks to contain rising inflation. The nomination is widely expected to be approved by the Senate, and Powell’s new term would begin in February 2022.

Healing labor market

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest weekly total since 1969, marking the eighth consecutive weekly decline. The 199,000 filings in the latest weekly count was down from 270,000 the previous week and was far below economists’ expectations.

Fed’s rate outlook

At their meeting earlier this month, Federal Reserve officials expressed concern about the persistence of rising inflation and discussed whether they should prepare to raise interest rates in the first half of next year. The release on Wednesday of minutes from the early November meeting showed that some officials wanted to end the Fed’s asset purchase program sooner than June 2022 in case they feel greater urgency to raise rates once the program wraps up.

Jobs ahead

A monthly labor market update due out on Friday is likely to be the week’s most closely watched economic report. The data will show whether November maintained the pace of job growth seen in October, when the economy generated 531,000 new jobs—the biggest gain in three months—and unemployment fell to 4.6% from 4.8%. 

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