By A version of this post first appeared on TKer.co
The stock market climbed to all-time highs, with the S&P 500 setting a closing high of 5,762.48 on Monday. For the week, the S&P rose 0.2% to end at 5,751.07. The index is now up 20.6% year to date and up 60.4% from its October 12, 2022 .
On Friday, we learned the U.S. economy created a healthy 254,000 net new jobs in September. While the number confirms that the labor market isn’t falling apart, the pace of net job creation in this economic cycle.
One labor market indicator that’s been drawing more attention lately is the . In addition to measuring those hired into newly created jobs, this metric also captures those hired into existing jobs vacated by quitters, fired workers, and others. It’s been trending lower, and it .
According to the report, employers hired 5.32 million workers in August. While hires far exceed the 1.61 million people laid off during the period, the hiring rate — the number of hires as a percentage of the employed workforce — has fallen to 3.1%, matching the lowest level of the current economic cycle.
There are in the U.S., of which 86 million are and of which are . Of those carrying mortgage debt, almost all have , and most of those mortgages before rates surged from 2021 lows. All of this is to say: Most homeowners are not particularly sensitive to movements in home prices or mortgage rates.
Construction spending ticks lower. declined 0.1% to an annual rate of $2.13 trillion in August.
Manufacturing surveys don’t look great. From S&P Global’s : “The September PMI survey brings a whole slew of disappointing economic indicators regarding the health of the US economy. Factories reported the largest monthly drop in production for 15 months in response to a slump in new orders, in turn driving further reductions in employment and input buying as producers scaled back operating capacity.”
Similarly, the ISM’s signaled contraction in the industry.
Keep in mind that during times of perceived stress, soft survey data tends to be more exaggerated than hard data.
Services surveys look great. From S&P Global’s : “U.S. service sector businesses reported a strong end to the third quarter, with output continuing to grow at one of the fastest rates seen over the past two-and-a-half years. After GDP rose at a 3.0% rate in the second quarter, a similar strong performance looks likely in the three months to September. Encouragingly, inflows of new business in the service sector grew at a rate only marginally shy of August’s 27-month high. Lower interest rates have already been reported by survey contributors as having buoyed demand, notably for financial services which, alongside healthcare, remains an especially strong performing sector.”
Near-term GDP growth estimates remain positive. The sees real GDP growth climbing at a 2.5% rate in Q3:
Putting it all together
We continue to get evidence that we are experiencing a where inflation cools to manageable levels .
This comes as the Federal Reserve continues to employ very tight monetary policy in its . More recently, with inflation rates having from their 2022 highs, the Fed has taken a less hawkish stance in — even .
It would take monetary policy as being loose or even neutral, which means we should be prepared for relatively tight financial conditions (e.g., higher interest rates, tighter lending standards, and lower stock valuations) to linger. All this means for the time being, and the risk the into a recession will be relatively elevated.
At the same time, we also know that stocks are discounting mechanisms — meaning that .
Also, it’s important to remember that while recession risks may be elevated, . Unemployed people are , and those with jobs are getting raises.
Similarly, as many corporations . Even as the threat of higher debt servicing costs looms, give corporations room to absorb higher costs.
At this point, any given that the .
And as always, should remember that and are just when you enter the stock market with the aim of generating long-term returns. While , the long-run outlook for stocks .
A version of this post first appeared on TKer.co
