News by the Numbers – for the week of May 7th, 2018
By Blanke Schein Wealth Management on May 7, 2018
Five noteworthy figures from the previous week
3.9%
America’s unemployment rate in April.
This is the lowest jobless rate recorded by the Department of Labor since 2000. Additionally, initial state unemployment claims fell to a 45-year low last week.
Source: Washington Post 1
$2.82
The average price of a gallon of gas, as of Friday.
In its latest national survey, AAA Gas Prices found that the mean price for a gallon of regular unleaded was $0.45 higher than it was a year ago.
Source: AAA Gas Prices 2
332.36
Friday’s Dow Jones Industrial Average gain.
The blue chips were down 150 points at the start of the trading day. When word came that Warren Buffett had Berkshire Hathaway buy 75 million shares of Apple in the first quarter, they rallied.
Source: MarketWatch 3
42%
The likelihood of four interest rate hikes in 2018, according to the Fed futures market.
Friday, the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool implied these “odds” of the Federal Reserve making four rate moves this year, instead of three. It put the chance of the Fed raising interest rates by a quarter-point in June at 100%.
Source: U.S. News 4
2.0%
The year-over-year gain in the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index, through April.
This index (maintained monthly by the Bureau of Economic Analysis) is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure. This reading is right in line with the Fed’s annualized inflation target.
Source: MarketWatch 5
1 – www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/04/unemployment-is-headed-for-historic-lows-economists-say/ [5/4/18]
2 – gasprices.aaa.com/ [5/4/18]
3 – www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-adds-30-points-to-dow-after-report-that-buffett-bought-75-million-shares-2018-05-04 [5/4/18]
4 – money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2018-05-04/traders-expect-us-rate-hike-in-june-shrug-off-weak-payrolls-data [5/4/18]
5 – www.marketwatch.com/story/treasury-yields-edge-higher-ahead-of-feds-favorite-inflation-measure-2018-04-30 [4/30/18]
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