Here is a quick summary of this earnings season so far. As of last Friday, 72% of the S&P 500 companies had reported with the index showing a very strong 13.3% year-over-year growth so far relative to the expectation for 7.3% growth.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as JOLTS, released Tuesday showed openings were 7.6 million in December, a three month low.
The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to keep the federal funds rate target, its main monetary policy tool, in a range of 4.25%-5.00% as expected.
The number of Americans on benefit rolls climbed to a more than three-year high, while first-time applications for US unemployment insurance edged higher.
This week, two key inflation measures were updated. The producer price index (PPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that wholesale prices unexpectedly cooled in December.
US employment in December advanced by the most in nine months and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, capping another year of resilience in the labor market.