The week ahead - how high is the unemployment rate set to rise?
Listen now
Description
After an April sell-off saw the US market fall 5.5% from its all time, the S&P 500 rebounded 2.7% last week, its best performance in almost six months. This came despite another hotter than expected inflation report, with the headline PCE (the Fed's preferred inflation gauge) increasing at an annual rate of 2.7%. Solid earnings releases drove the gains, and with 46% of the market having reported 80% of companies have beaten expectations. Most other sharemarkets followed suit, with the FTSE 100 in the UK rising 3.1% to a fresh highs and emerging market shares gaining 3.7%. This coming week is a very busy one, with some major US economic releases due as well as a Federal Reserve meeting. There's plenty happening locally too, with the ANZ Business Outlook survey for April due on Tuesday and the labour force report for the March 2024 quarter out on Wednesday. The unemployment rate is expected to rise from 4.0% to 4.3%, the highest in three years and well above multi-decade low of 3.2% from early 2022. Last but not least, there will be more international earnings releases to monitor across the world, with 175 S&P 500 companies scheduled to announce results.
More Episodes
The S&P 500 in the US was up 1.9% last week, while the UK and Europe were stronger still, rising 2.7% and 3.2% respectively. In contrast, it was a tough week for the local market. The NZX 50 fell 1.5% in the wake of a string of recent profit warnings and poor trading updates from the likes of...
Published 05/11/24
Published 05/11/24
Some women are apprehensive about investing, but there’s plenty of evidence they’re better at it than their male counterparts. There have been several studies conducted over the years, and many of these have shown that on average, women often achieve better investment returns than men. Women are...
Published 05/07/24