Positive vaccine news across the week with Moderna officially reporting their vaccine trials indicates a high effectiveness level. On Friday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced they will seek FDA authorization to clear the vaccine for potential distribution in December.
October retail sales continued to increase with a 0.3% gain versus September, though slightly less than expectations of 0.5%. While the pace of improvement has slowed after a large Q3 gain, total retail spending exceeds pre-COVID levels.
Monthly industrial production returned to positive territory in October, increasing 1.1% compared to last month’s revised 0.4% decline. Slightly beating expectations of a 1.0% gain. Manufacturing increased for the sixth month in a row, climbing 1.0% in October
October existing-home sales unexpectedly rose to 6.85M versus September’s revised figure of 6.57M. The month’s growth was contrary to the expected drop to 6.47M and rose the figure to its highest value since 2005.
Initial jobless claims ticked up last week, rising to 742K versus the week’s prior 709K and expectations of 700K.