Stock Market Weekly Wrap-up

7th April 2022, 12.00am

Micah Shin, Senior Correspondent, USA

Source: Reuters

Last week marked the end of the first quarter of 2022. Despite inflation, consumer reports have shown a promising upward trend, corroborated by a decreasing unemployment rate (down to 3.6%).

Economic Indicators

The labor force participation rate is just above 62%, indicating that the labor supply is slowly starting to return to the workforce. In the month of March, the U.S. economy was able to generate over 400,000 jobs, and the yield of the 2-year U.S. Treasury bond rose above that of the 10-year bond (first time in nearly three years that the yield curve inverted). Overall, households in the United States have entered the year with more than $2.5 trillion in savings compared to pre-pandemic statistics. Last week, the bond market experienced its worst quarter since 1980.

Commodities

On Friday, the price of a barrel of U.S. crude oil dropped to below the $100 level as a reaction to President Biden’s recent announcement: the United States plans to release up to 180 million oil barrels from a strategic reserve.

Inflation

Excluding food and energy prices, the consumption expenditures index climbed to 5.4% and PCE inflation rose to 6.4%. The three major U.S. indices experienced little change at the close of last week; however, they were able to recover from their losses since Russia decided to invade Ukraine at the end of February. In Europe, the consumer price index reached 7.5% and the inflation rate was nearly 6%. The eurozone has also experienced higher energy prices since the war in Ukraine.