IAIC Market Update - January 10, 2022
Last Week in the Markets: January 3rd - 7th, 2022
(source: Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/markets, MSCI https://www.msci.com/end-of-day-data-search and ARG Inc. analysis)
What happened last week?
- Equity indices in North America and around the world lost ground last week based on three major influences:
- Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and ICU admissions have spiked and are causing restrictions to be reintroduced.
- Central banks are indicating that the temporary nature of inflation is not as brief as first believed and short-term interest rates will need to be raised.
- Employment numbers in the U.S. disappointed.
- The U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs in December with year-over-year wages rising 4.7% and unemployment at 3.9%. Analysts expected about 400,000 new jobs to be created last month and 3.6 million less jobs exist today than in February 2020. The Canadian economy bested jobs growth expectations during the last two months. After adding 153,000 jobs in November and 55,000 in December the rate of employment growth is exceeding the U.S. while wage-rate increases, and unemployment rates lag the American economy’s performance. (Source1, Source2)
- The lone “green” indicator in our grid is the price of oil that surged nearly 5% last week after OPEC+ agreed to another round of cooperative supply adjustments. The rising price of oil may continue to contribute to rising consumer and producer inflation should this trend persist.
What’s ahead for this week?
- In Canada, several important announcements will occur in the next few days and weeks, GDP, inflation and the next Bank of Canada interest rate announcement.
- In the U.S., wholesale inventories, business inventories, industrial production will be announced. The Senate Banking Committee will conduct nomination hearings for the Jerome Powell’s second term as Federal Reserve Chair. Lastly, and certainly not least, consumer inflation for December will be announced.
- Globally, the Eurozone jobs report, trade surplus and industrial production, China’s Consumer and Producer Price Indices and trade surplus represent important indicators from significant economies.
For more information contact:
Independent Accountants’ Investment Counsel Inc.
135 Main St. E. Listowel, ON
Phone: 519-291-2817 or TF: 1-877-291-3040
icpmss@iaic.ca
This report is produced by Independent Accountants' Investment Counsel Inc (“IAIC”) in conjunction with ARG Inc. All graph and chart statistical data contained in this report has been supplied by ARG Inc. The views and opinions expressed in this report are based on market statistics. No guarantee of outcome is implied and opinions may change without notice. Investors should not base any of their investment decisions solely on this report nor should any opinions expressed within this report be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein. Although the information contained in this report has been obtained from sources that IAIC believes to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy, and as such, the information may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions, estimates and other information included in this report constitute our judgment as of the date hereof and are subject to change without notice.
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