The Mark Lund Growth Report

JOBS REPORT GIVES THE FeD A GREEN LIGHT The economy created 211,000 jobs in November – a healthy hiring total that could prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten for the first time since 2006. Job growth has averaged 218,000 over the past three months (the Labor Department just revised October and November job gains upward […]

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE TRENDS DOWN November saw the Conference Board consumer confidence index plummet. It dropped 8.7 points from its revised October mark of 99.1 to 90.4; economists polled by Briefing.com assumed it would rise slightly to 99.6. The CB attributed November’s poor reading (the lowest since September 2014) to declining expectations of job and wage

FED HINTS AT A DECEMBER RATE HIKE Minutes from the October Federal Open Market Committee meeting were released last Wednesday, and they revealed that “most” of the 10 FOMC members thought that conditions for a rate hike “could well be met by the time of the next meeting.” Another passage noted that “it may well

RETAIL PURCHASES UP JUST 0.1% IN OCTOBER The tiny increase was actually an improvement, as retail sales were flat in both August and September. Gas station sales tailed off 0.9% in October, car sales 0.5%; offsetting those declines, online retail purchases were up 1.4% last month, spending at restaurants and bars up 0.5%. The Commerce

OCTOBER WAS A GREAT MONTH FOR JOB GROWTH Employers added 271,000 new jobs last month according to the Labor Department, far surpassing the Bloomberg consensus forecast of 182,000. The jobless rate ticked down to an even 5.0% while the U-6 rate measuring “total” unemployment fell to 9.8%. Wages also rose nine cents to $25.20, up

MIXED CONSUMER SIGNALS AT MONTH’s END Commerce Department data showed personal spending up only 0.1% for September. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell 5.0 points in October to a mark of 97.6; the University of Michigan’s index of household sentiment did rise 2.8 points on the month to a final October reading of 90.0.1

EXISTING HOME SALES ACCELERATE The National Association of Realtors measured a 4.7% gain in residential resales for September, and the annualized sales pace of 5.55 million units was the second best seen since February 2007. Over the past 12 months, existing home sales are up 8.8% with the average sale price up 6.1% (September’s median

A SURPRISE: HOUSEHOLD OPTIMISM RISES Even after a bad month for stocks and numerous negative headlines, the University of Michigan’s preliminary October consumer sentiment index showed notable improvement. It came in at 92.1, up 4.9 points from its final September reading. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch expected an initial October reading of 88.5.1 A MILD SEPTEMBER

142,000 NEW JOBS CREATED IN SEPTEMBER Is a global slowdown impacting the U.S. economy? The latest Labor Department jobs report seemed to say yes. Hiring last month fell far short of the 200,000 total projected by economists in a MarketWatch survey. Moreover, job gains across July and August were revised down by 59,000. There was

A BIT MORE OPTIMISM AS SEPTEMBER ENDS The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index advanced slightly in the past couple of weeks, rising to a final September mark of 87.2 from its initial reading of 85.7. Regardless, this was the index’s poorest final monthly reading since October 2014. It did surpass the expectations of analysts