Monday, November 22, 2021
Markets finished mixed last week — the last full trading week for the month of November — mixed, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq making moves higher amid headwinds on the global stage, including a spike in Delta variant Covid in Europe, high valuations among companies toward the end of a very healthy Q3 earnings season, and other issues. This morning, major indexes are all higher.
We are shortened this week for Thanksgiving on Thursday, and a half-day of trading on Friday. We’re also relatively light on earnings reports, with nearly all of the S&P 500 already having released numbers. And economic prints are largely absent, save Wednesday, when we expect a host of data: a revision to Q3 GDP, Personal Income/Consumer Spending, Durable Goods Orders, Initial & Continuing Jobless Claims (a day early), New Home Sales, Advance Trade Deficit, Fed minutes from the last FOMC meeting and a University of Michigan Consumer Survey. In other words, we’ll have plenty to digest in addition to all the turkey and stuffing later this week.
This morning, we did get a new Chicago Fed National Activity Index for October, where we see a solid rebound from the downwardly revised -0.18 for September: +0.76. This report tracks 85 indicators of economic activity, and shows a nice bounce-back in Production & Income for the month. Employment is the only one of four major segments to stay consistently above-trend throughout 2021. Personal Consumption/Housing and Sales, Orders and Inventories were also above trend last month.
Finally, Fed Chair Jerome “Jay” Powell has been renominated by President Biden to his position, with Fed Governor Lael Brainard upgraded to the #2 Vice-Chair position. Speculation had been hot over the past week or two regarding whether Biden would replace Powell with Brainard, but Biden cited Powell’s leadership on monetary policy during the pandemic and his “trial by fire.” The progressive wing of the Democratic Party was in favor of installing Brainard, who moves to a closer position to helm the Fed down the road, should Democrats retain political power at that time.
The markets like this development: the Dow was basically doubled from its earlier gains to around +160 points at this hour, with the S&P 500 +20 points and the Nasdaq +76. The market hates nothing so much as uncertainty, and this Powell/Brainard decision — while some would say unnecessarily delayed — solves for that on this important instance.
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Powell to Get Another Term as Fed Chair
Monday, November 22, 2021
Markets finished mixed last week — the last full trading week for the month of November — mixed, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq making moves higher amid headwinds on the global stage, including a spike in Delta variant Covid in Europe, high valuations among companies toward the end of a very healthy Q3 earnings season, and other issues. This morning, major indexes are all higher.
We are shortened this week for Thanksgiving on Thursday, and a half-day of trading on Friday. We’re also relatively light on earnings reports, with nearly all of the S&P 500 already having released numbers. And economic prints are largely absent, save Wednesday, when we expect a host of data: a revision to Q3 GDP, Personal Income/Consumer Spending, Durable Goods Orders, Initial & Continuing Jobless Claims (a day early), New Home Sales, Advance Trade Deficit, Fed minutes from the last FOMC meeting and a University of Michigan Consumer Survey. In other words, we’ll have plenty to digest in addition to all the turkey and stuffing later this week.
This morning, we did get a new Chicago Fed National Activity Index for October, where we see a solid rebound from the downwardly revised -0.18 for September: +0.76. This report tracks 85 indicators of economic activity, and shows a nice bounce-back in Production & Income for the month. Employment is the only one of four major segments to stay consistently above-trend throughout 2021. Personal Consumption/Housing and Sales, Orders and Inventories were also above trend last month.
Finally, Fed Chair Jerome “Jay” Powell has been renominated by President Biden to his position, with Fed Governor Lael Brainard upgraded to the #2 Vice-Chair position. Speculation had been hot over the past week or two regarding whether Biden would replace Powell with Brainard, but Biden cited Powell’s leadership on monetary policy during the pandemic and his “trial by fire.” The progressive wing of the Democratic Party was in favor of installing Brainard, who moves to a closer position to helm the Fed down the road, should Democrats retain political power at that time.
The markets like this development: the Dow was basically doubled from its earlier gains to around +160 points at this hour, with the S&P 500 +20 points and the Nasdaq +76. The market hates nothing so much as uncertainty, and this Powell/Brainard decision — while some would say unnecessarily delayed — solves for that on this important instance.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>