Update for June 14, 2021
Highlights of key economic statistics from last week compiled by Putnam Investments.
- The CPI rose 0.6% and core CPI increased 0.7% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Wholesale inventories grew 0.8% in April compared with March, the Census Bureau stated.
- Initial jobless claims fell to 376,000 in the week ended June 5, 2021, from 385,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department reported.
- As of June 2, 2021, of the 494 S&P 500 Index companies reporting first-quarter earnings, 422 beat analysts’ expectations, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
- The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index slipped in May.
- The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment rose to 86.4 in June from 82.9 in May.
- Euro area GDP fell by 0.3% in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to Eurostat.
- Germany’s Federal Statistical Office reported that industrial production declined 1.0% in April compared with March.
- Germany’s factory orders slipped 0.2% in April compared with March, the Federal Statistical Office noted.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury note declined.
- The European Central Bank decided to maintain its current monetary policy.
- Divergent vaccination rollout timelines and virus mutations risk could cause a shift from a synchronized global recovery to a more fractured regional, multispeed recovery.
- Global leverage, created by pandemic response packages, is at worrisome levels and will eventually need to be paid for.
- Pandemic and financial repression policies have exacerbated global wealth inequality.
