Update for January 19, 2020
Highlights of key economic statistics from last week compiled by Putnam Investments.
- The CPI rose 0.4% and core CPI increased 0.1% in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Import prices rose 0.9% and export prices increased 1.1% in December, the Bureau of labor Stastistics reported.
- Retail sales declined 0.7% in December, according to an advance report from the Census Bureau.
- Initial jobless claims reached 965,000 in the week ended January 9, 2021, according to the Labor Department.
- As of January 7, 2021, of the 18 S&P 500 Index companies reporting fourth-quarter earnings, 18 beat analysts’ estimates, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
- The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index declined to a below-average level in December.
- The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment dropped to 79.2 in January from 80.7 in December.
- Eurostat noted that euro area industrial production increased 2.5% in November compared with October.
- Germany’s Federal Statistical Office found that wholesale prices grew 0.6% in December compared with November.
- GDP fell by 2.6% in November, according to the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury note traded in a narrow range.
- Most districts reported that economic activity rose modestly in December, according to the Federal Open Market Committee’s Beige Book report.
- A slowdown in the pace of mobility gains globally due to regional virus case spikes will continue to act as a drag on economic recovery.
- Global leverage, created by pandemic response packages, is at worrisome levels and eventually will need to be paid for.
- Pandemic and financial repression policies have exacerbated global wealth inequality.
