Weekly Economic Update – 11/1/21

The Week on Wall Street

A fresh wave of positive corporate earnings surprises sent markets to new record highs last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.40%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 1.33%. The Nasdaq Composite index picked up 2.71% for the week. The MSCI EAFE index, which tracks developed overseas stock markets, was up 0.68%.^1,2,3

Earnings Drive Market

The week kicked off with the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 index setting record highs as the financial markets carried over the previous week’s price momentum.⁴

Stocks continued to climb on a string of forecast-beating earnings results. With about half of the S&P 500 constituent companies having reported earnings, more than 80% of them have beaten Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimates. Based on these results, earnings for all S&P 500 companies are expected to come in approximately 39% above the third quarter of last year. (Forecasts are based on assumptions, and may not materialize.) Stocks overcame disappointing earnings from two mega-cap tech names on Friday to maintain the week’s solid gains.⁵

GDP Growth Slows

While businesses managed to post strong earnings in the third quarter, the first look at economic growth came in below consensus estimates. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a 2.0% annualized rate in the third quarter, a slowdown from the two previous quarters, each of which posted annualized growth rates in excess of 6%.⁶

The spread of the Delta variant and backlogs in the supply chain were two major factors dragging on economic activity.

T H E W E E K L Y R I D D L E

By rearranging the letters in the phrase VIEWING A STIR, you can make the name of a U.S. state. What state is it?

LAST WEEK’S RIDDLE: If you add 1.5 to this number, you will get the same result as you would if you multiplied it by 1.5. What number is it? (Hints: It is a whole number, it is not zero, and it is between 1 and 10.)

ANSWER: 3.

Posted on November 1, 2021

Set aside a half-hour to organize your financial documents. It makes sense for tax season, and it makes sense all year.

Market Index	Close	Week %	YTD %
DJIA	35,819.56	+0.40%	+17.03%
NASDAQ	15,498.39	+2.71%	+20.25%
S&P 500	4,605.38	+1.33%	+22.61%
Treasury	Close	Week %	YTD %
10 Year Note	1.55%	-0.11%	+0.62%

Sources: wsj.com, treasury.gov –

Citations

CITATIONS:

The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2021
The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2021
The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2021
CNBC, October 24, 2021
CNBC, October 28, 2021
The Wall Street Journal, October 28, 2021

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