Last Week:

  • U.S. equities finished positive for the week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed 471 points higher, or rose 2.16%, to 22,268. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) index gained 39 points, or rose 1.58%, to 2,500. The Nasdaq closed last week 1.39% higher at 6,448. The Dow and S&P hit all-time highs during the week.
  • Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey: Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. job openings hit another record high in July amid a scarcity of workers. The job openings rate (as a share of total employment) remained at 4%, which is a record high. As seen below, the high number of unfilled jobs translates into one unemployed worker for each job posting, compared to the Great Recession (December 2007 – June 2009) levels of seven unemployed workers for each opening.

Number of Unemployed Persons per Job Opening (seasonally adjusted)

Haverford Trust Line Graph (July 2002-July 2017).
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Shaded area represents The Great Recession

Look Ahead:

  • Key reports/items for the upcoming week include The Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney’s speech on Monday, the OPEC and non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna and a series of Fed speak (John Williams & Esther George). The highlight of the week will be the Federal Open Market Committee meeting and interest rate decision on Wednesday.