The economy added a blockbuster 943,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in July, and employment in May and June was revised up by a net 119,000. The unemployment rate dropped 0.5 percentage point to 5.4%, the lowest since February 2020’s 3.5%. Employment in the household survey (different from the survey of payrolls) jumped 1.043 million on the […]
U.S. Saw Blockbuster Jobs Growth and Strong PMIs in July; Chinese Growth Read More »
The Federal Open Market Committee kept monetary policy unchanged in its July 28 decision, but signaled that they have started the tapering clock. The committee said that the economy has made “progress” toward their goals of full employment and inflation averaging 2% over the longer run, but not the “substantial further progress” they set in
As expected, the European Central Bank strengthened its forward guidance regarding interest rates at its July 22 Governing Council Decision. The decision was the first after their announcement of a more dovish monetary policy strategy on July 8. The Governing Council now “expects” to keep interest rates at current or lower levels until two criteria
Consumer spending continues to boom: June’s retail sales were up 19.8% from their level in February 2020, before the pandemic hit the U.S. Retail and food services sales rose 0.6% in June from May; this was partially offset by a 0.4% downward revision to May’s level of retail sales, which are now down 1.7% from
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) reduced the reserve requirement ratio (“RRR”) for Chinese commercial banks by 0.5 percentage point on July 9; the RRR cut allows commercial banks to turn more of their customers’ deposits into loans rather than holding them at the central bank as reserves. The PBoC estimates that the RRR cut
The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) surprised with a 0.25 percentage point hike in their policy interbank rate at the June 24 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, raising the rate to 4.25%; no economists surveyed by Bloomberg prior to the decision had expected a hike. Banxico’s announcement cited the jump in U.S. CPI inflation to the highest
The consumer price index for all urban consumers rose 0.6% in May vs 0.5% expected and 0.8% in April. In year-over-year terms, CPI inflation accelerated to 5.0% in May from 4.2% in April and was the highest since August 2008. But since consumer prices fell last April and May as the economy entered free-fall, the
The April jobs report was a huge disappointment. The economy added just 266,000 jobs, far short of expectations of around a million; the BLS also revised down job growth in February and March by a net 78,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1% from 6.0% as the labor force increased by 430,000, employment (measured
April Jobs Reports Disappoints in U.S. and Canada; Bank of England Slows QE Program Read More »
The PNC Financial Services Group’s March 1, 2021 Economic Report
The PNC Financial Services Group’s February 1, 2021 Economic Report
