This week brought us highs (an executive order to eradicate mosquitoes and ticks) and lows (pretty much everything else). If you missed our longer writeup on today’s jobs report, you can read that here.
Monday
Treasury Yields Rise Even Higher
Treasury yields kept surging this week, with the 10-year (a good proxy for borrowing costs) at least briefly surpassing 5.3% for the first time in over 20 years. Yields have edged back from that high, but that doesn’t really change the takeaway here: this is extremely bad news for rate-sensitive segments.
Oil Stuff
Oil prices fell this past week, and that’s provided a slight bit of relief at the pump. Diesel prices fell back to $6.38/gallon this week, which is still $2.63 more expensive than during the same week last year. Gas prices were virtually unchanged at $4.60 per gallon.
Tuesday
Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index
Consumer confidence plunged to a 12-year low in September. This one isn’t hard to understand: consumers really hate high gas prices.
Job Opening & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)
Hiring sped up slightly in August, while the pace of layoffs slowed and the number of open, unfilled jobs declined. It remains a great time to have a job and a somewhat difficult time to need one.
S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
Home prices increased pretty slowly in July and are up just 1.9% over the past year. While that’s pretty tepid growth, affordability is still awful due to mortgage rates (at least for anyone who has to finance).
