Market Overview

Labor force participation rate has been dropping steadily since 2000 (see chart). Central planners can't explain it or refuse to touch it. They assure those affected not to worry. Those with a job...

US news was very positive this week. The second estimate for 3rd quarter GDP increased .3% to 3.2%. Personal incomes and spending continued to rise as well. Durable goods, which have been weak due to...

Numerous Fed Governors have correctly observed that both unemployment and inflation levels support a rate hike. Unemployment is 4.6%; core CPI is 2.1% while total CPI is 1.6%.But an ancillary question...

Last week’s most important international economic development was OPEC’s agreement to limit production. As with all OPEC agreements, there are many details that could potentially unravel...

Canadian dollar surged broadly last week as the highly anticipated OPEC meeting finally delivered an agreement on production cut. WTI crude oil surged 51.80 and took the Loonie, as well as stocks...

There were significant moves in interest rates and currencies last month. The drama was primarily spurred by the solidification of expectations of a Fed hike in the middle of this month and the...

EM remains a mixed bag. Despite the negative connotations of a rising US rate environment, EM gathered an element of stability last week as the dollar consolidated its recent gains. Rising commodity...

Wow. According to the headlines, the US economy has surged to 3.2% growth in the third quarter. Hope you are feeling it!Follow up: To begin, I hate the quarter-over-quarter methodology which produces...

Since the November 8thelection, the NYSE has seen seventeen trading sessions, with the Dow Jones closing at new all-time highs in nine of them. I’m not going to argue with success, but seeing...

The jobs report for November was quite mixed. Employment grew 178,000 in November in line with the recent trend and without any major revisions to previous months.The unemployment rate fell against...

Market movers ahead Focus is on the Italian referendum held on Sunday. A 'No' seems most likely to us but we would not expect this to result in 'Italexit' or a major sell-off in Italian government...

After two months of “unexpected” weakness, the ISM Manufacturing Index rebounded in November. With both September and October below 52, after August’s reading was less than 50, the...

Nominal personal spending grew by just over 4% in October 2016, a number that sounds impressive by virtue of what we have become used to in this economy. That was much less than the 5.2% in spending...

The following table lists the key economic data and other events that came out during the week of November 28th through December 2nd, with release times displayed for the GMT time zone.The list also...