Weekly Market Insights: Confidence Grows In Resilient Economy

With growing confidence in the economy’s resilience, stocks posted another week of solid gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.31%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 advanced 1.79%. The Nasdaq Composite index picked up 1.98% for the week. The MSCI EAFE index, which tracks developed overseas stock markets, added 0.27%.1,2,3

Stocks Extend Gains

Markets bounced around all week as investors grappled with the crosswinds of rising yields, continued hostilities in Ukraine, and hawkish comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. After suffering declines in two of the first three trading sessions of the week, stocks turned higher on a good jobless claims number that investors interpreted as continuing economic strength.

Stocks drifted higher as the week came to a close amid rising bond yields, which on Friday saw the 10-year Treasury yield rise for the 13th time in 16 trading sessions.4

Labor Market

Many economists speculated that the invasion of Ukraine would likely shave economic growth in the short term as hostilities worsened supply chains and increased inflationary pressures. The impact, so far, has not been seen in the labor market.

Last week’s initial jobless claims fell by 28,000 to 187,000, the lowest level since December 1969. The number of people on state unemployment rolls fell to 1.35 million, from 1.42 million the previous week, while open jobs are at a near-record high of 11.3 million. Employers’ need for workers suggests that the demand for products and services has remained resilient despite the events in Eastern Europe.5

Footnotes and Sources

  1. The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2022
  2. The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2022
  3. The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2022
  4. The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2022
  5. The Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2022