The holiday week made for a relatively slow week on the data front. During the shortened trading week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 30,000 for the first time. Despite the index’s shortcomings, we’re sure there will be plenty of ink spilled over the nice, round milestone.
Initial jobless claims unexpectedly worsened last week with 778K people filing for initial jobless claims versus last week’s revised 748K and expectations of 730K.
Personal income and spending diverged, with income falling 0.7% in October while spending increased by 0.5%. Both were greater moves in magnitude than expected, pointing to consumer balance sheets may be diverging more than expected as we head into the holiday season.
Durable goods orders increased a bit more than expected, buoyed by computers and metals, while the September figures were revised upward as well. Related, Markit’s Manufacturing PMI moved further into an expansionary territory (above 50) by increasing from 53.4 to 56.7, well ahead of an expected slight dip. The manufacturing sector continues to be one of the stronger sectors of the economy.