Hello, I’m Greg Curvall, Senior Portfolio Manager with Fifth Third Bank.
Last week U.S. stocks recorded a loss amid renewed concerns the Fed isn’t done raising interest rates. The Nasdaq was hit the hardest, weighed down by a decline in the price for Apple. Rising interest rates and oil prices also contributed to the decline in equities.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury increased 8 basis points to finish the week at 4.26 percent, up about 1 percent from a year ago. The price for a barrel of WTI crude increased a couple bucks to finish the week at $87 following news that Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to oil supply cuts.
On the political front, tensions between the United States and China have been rising in recent months. Last week President Joe Biden signed an executive order to impose blocks and regulations on U.S. high-tech investment in China. The new order targets investment in semiconductors and certain artificial intelligence capabilities. Perhaps in retaliation, China implemented an iPhone ban for Chinese state employees, leading some investors to believe that China may now be "uninvestable."
This week the economic calendar is backloaded with lots of interesting data releases coming out in the second half of the week. The most anticipated report, the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, comes out on Wednesday. The data in the report could help investors assess the Federal Reserve’s next steps in its efforts to tame inflation. CPI peaked just above 9 percent back in June of 2022 but has since fallen to 3.2 percent. On Thursday we get Retail Sales and the Producer’s Price Index, or PPI, another popular gauge of inflation. Then we finish up the week with Industrial Production and the University of Michigan Sentiment report on Friday.
As always, we will be watching and reporting back to you next week. Thank you.
