Confidence, Jobs, & Lethal Lemonade

Week in Review: Dec. 4-8

The U.S. economy continues to add jobs at a faster-than-expected pace (read our full post here), record oil production is helping push gas prices lower, Panera Bread’s insanely caffeinated lemonade killed again, and consumer sentiment increased for the first time in what feels like forever.

Oh, and David Rubenstein might buy the Orioles, which would be a huge win for us long-suffering fans because he went to high school in Charm City and is extremely thoughtful and performance driven. I can point to about 4.6 billion reasons why I like him. Aside from the menace of charged lemonade, December is off to a great start.

Monday

Gas Prices

Gas prices declined for an eleventh straight week, albeit by less than $0.01, and are still at the lowest level since the first week of 2023.

Diesel Prices

Diesel prices fell to $4.09/gallon, the lowest price since the end of July. Diesel is $0.88 cheaper per gallon than during the same week last year.

TSA Checkpoint Travel Numbers

The number of passengers screened by TSA fell off pretty sharply since the record-setting Thanksgiving week and have been below 2019 levels for most of the past week.

Tuesday

Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)

The number of job openings on the last day of October was the fewest since March 2021 but still well above the pre-pandemic level. There are still about 1.4 job openings per unemployed person, meaning that even if the unemployment rate fell to 0, there’d still be a lot of unfilled positions. This is down quite a bit from the all-time high of 2 job openings per unemployed worker, but the supply of labor is still far too low to meet demand.

ISM Services PMI

Economic activity in the services sector increased for the 11^th straight month in November, according to this business survey conducted by ISM. There were more signs of slowing price increases and still-scarce labor for the month.

Wednesday

U.S. Crude Oil Production