Update for October 19, 2020
Highlights of key economic statistics from last week compiled by Putnam Investments.
- The Producer Price Index for final demand increased 0.4% in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found.
- The CPI and core CPI both rose 0.2% in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated.
- Retail sales increased 1.9% in September, according to an advance report from the Census Bureau.
- Initial jobless claims reached 898,000 in the week ended October 10, 2020, the Department of Labor announced.
- As of October 8, 2020, of 22 S&P 500 companies reporting third-quarter earnings, 19 beat analysts’ estimates, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
- The University of Michigan’s preliminary index of consumer sentiment rose to 81.2 in October from 80.4 in September.
- The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index improved in September.
- Eurostat reported that euro area industrial production rose 0.7% in August compared with July.
- The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany declined in October.
- Germany’s Federal Statistical Office reported that wholesale prices fell 1.8% year over year in September.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury note declined.
- 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.
- The liquidity-fueled recovery in risk assets will at some point need to resolve with the pace of recovery in fundamentals, and the latter may happen over a longer horizon than hoped.
- The possibility of a "blue wave" in the U.S. November election, with Democrats winning control of the House, Senate, and Presidency, could mean a future rollback of corporate tax cuts.
