American shares suffered their deepest weekly decline in more than a year last week, but the setback wasn’t enough to dethrone US stocks as the world’s top-performing asset class in 2024. Based on a set of ETFs tracks the major asset classes through Friday’s close (Sep. 6), US equities are still leading the field by a wide margin.
Daily Archives: September 9, 2024
Macro Briefing: 9 September 2024
US payrolls rebounded in August, but the 142,000 increase in new jobs was less than forecast. “The labor market is cooling at a measured pace,” notes Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. “Businesses are still adding to payrolls but not as indiscriminately. The Fed will likely cut by 25 basis points and reserve the right to be more aggressive in the last two meetings of the year.” The unemployment rate dipped to 4.2% from 4.3% previously. Although that’s modest relative to the history, the recent increase has triggered recession warnings, according to some analysts. “The increased unemployment rate is in a range where we have historically been in recessions,” says economist Claudia Sahm. “But that’s a history, that’s a past. We’re not in a recession right now, but we do have a weakening labor market.”
