John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended September 10th
Labor market gain
New filings for federal unemployment benefits dropped to a pandemic-era low, with 310,000 claims submitted in the latest weekly count. That’s down from the previous week’s 345,000 figure and the lowest since March 2020.
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The government reported on Wednesday that U.S. employers had a record 10.9 million job openings in the latest monthly count, exceeding economists’ expectations. July’s job openings total exceeded the 8.7 million Americans who were unemployed and seeking jobs
Inflation moderates
A measure of U.S. price trends at the wholesale—rather than consumer—level continued to rise at a historically high rate but slowed somewhat from the prior month’s gain. The government’s producer price index rose 0.7% in August compared with the previous month, down from two straight month-to-month jumps of 1.0% in June and July.
Price check
A government report scheduled to be released on Tuesday will show whether the recent spike in consumer prices carried over into August. The Consumer Price Index released last month showed that prices surged 5.4% for the 12-month period that ended in July. While high, that figure was in line with expectations and lower than June’s rise on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Source: https://wmr.jhinvestments.com/