On Tuesday, the CB Consumer Confidence report came in at 81.9 compared to an expected 89.2 prior to the release. The JOLTS report found that there were 7.08 million open positions in the United States, which was just under what analysts expected.
On Wednesday, the Core PCE Price Index for September was revealed that prices rose 0.2 percent during that period. This was a tick below the expected increase of 0.3 percent before the report came out. In addition, final GDP numbers for the second quarter of the year came out.
During that period, the economy grew 2.2 percent compared to an expected 1.5 percent. This gives more credence to Fed Chair Warsh’s assessment that the economy is poised to grow, which means that the Fed can focus on inflation as opposed to employment numbers. Interestingly, it was mentioned this week that there may not be a need for another rate hike in 2026. It was widely expected after September’s hike that at least one more would occur before the end of the calendar year.
Finally, Wednesday saw the release of the ADP’s version of the nonfarm payroll report. The economy added 90,000 jobs compared to an expected 76,000. However, the good news would be negated by a relatively sluggish report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday. 0
The report found that the economy added just 29,000 jobs in September compared to an expected 89,000. Furthermore, the August report was revised downward to 133,000 new jobs. In addition, average hourly earnings in September were up 0.1 percent compared to an expected increase of 0.3 percent. Finally, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2 percent compared to 4.1 percent last month.
In other news, unemployment claims remained steady with 197,000 requests for benefits over the last seven days. This was just 1,000 short of last week’s figure of 198,000.
The ISM Manufacturing PMI came in at 54.5, which shows that the sector is still in an expansion phase. The ISM Services PMI will be released on Monday.
The S&P 500 was up 0.24 percent to finish at 7,722, which was an increase of 18 points for the week. Over the last month, the index is up 0.67 percent. For the week, the market made a low of 7,625 on Thursday and a high of 7,750 on Friday.
The Dow was down 0.69 percent this week to close at 51,176. This was a loss of 353 points this week despite finishing Friday up more than 250 points. On Monday, the market made a weekly high of 51,176 and a weekly low of 50,616 on Thursday. The index is down 3.72 percent over the last month.
Finally, the Nasdaq was up 1.01 percent this week to close at 27,190. This was a gain of 270 points over the last five trading days for a market that is up 3.46 percent over the last month. The index made a weekly low of 26,743 on Monday and a weekly high of 27,309 on Friday.
In international news, Australia announced Tuesday that CPI was at 0.4 percent on a monthly basis in September and 4 percent on an annualized basis. This came a day after the Reserve Bank of Australia increased the country’s main interest rate to 4.6 percent from 4.35 percent. Canada announced on Tuesday that GDP growth was flat on a monthly basis, which was expected prior to the announcement.
This week will surely be consequential as the FOMC meeting minutes from September as set to be made public Wednesday afternoon. Unemployment claims data comes out on Thursday while the University of Michigan releases its consumer sentiment and inflation expectation data on Friday.