JP Morgan Earnings
Third-quarter earnings season kicked off on Wednesday with JPMorgan Chase, which said that quarterly profit topped expectations following a boost from better-than-expected loan losses.
JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday posted third-quarter results that exceeded expectations on a $1.5 billion boost from better-than-expected loan losses. The gain came after the bank released $2.1 billion in reserves and had $524 million of charge-offs in the quarter, New York-based JPMorgan said in a release. The bank produced $3.74 per share in earnings, which includes a 52 cent per share boost from reserve releases and a 19 cent per share benefit tied to a tax filing. JPMorgan shares rose 0.78% in premarket trading. Here are the numbers: Earnings: $3.74 per share vs. $3 per share estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenue: $30.44 billion vs $29.8 billion estimate. The bank “delivered strong results as the economy cont
Bank Earnings
Morgan Stanley beats estimates on record investment banking and asset management results Here are the numbers: Earnings of $1.98 a share vs the $1.68 a share estimate of analysts surveyed Refinitiv. Revenue: $14.75 billion vs. the $14 billion estimate. Shares of the bank climbed 2.2% in premarket trading.
Bank of America posted third-quarter results on Thursday that exceeded analysts’ expectations as it benefited from better-than-expected loan losses and record advisory and asset management fees. Here are the numbers:
Earnings: 85 cents a share vs the 71 cents a share estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv Revenue: $22.87 billion vs the $21.8 billion estimate
Citigroup reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter on Thursday as trading revenue helped the company deliver a major increase in profits. The bank reported $2.15 in earnings per share on $17.15 billion in revenue. Wall Street was anticipating earnings per share of $1.65 on revenue of $16.97 billion, based on Refinitiv consensus estimates. Net income came in at $4.6 billion, compared with $3.1 billion a year ago. That is a 48% increase year over year.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) - Inflation
Consumer prices increased slightly more than expected in September as food and energy price increases offset declines in used cars, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The consumer price index for all items rose 0.4% for the month, compared to the 0.3% Dow Jones estimate. On a year-over-year basis, prices increased 5.4% vs. the estimate for 5.3% and the highest since January 1991.However, excluding volatile food and energy prices, the CPI increased 0.2% on the month and 4% year over year, against respective estimates for 0.3% and 4%.
FOMC Minutes for Meeting 22/Sep/2021 Week 38
The Fed prepared to slow support for the economy and worried about supply chain disruption at its last meeting. Federal Reserve officials are preparing to slow bond buying and are divided over when they might need to raise interest rates as inflation bites. Federal Reserve officials were preparing to begin slowing down monetary policy support as soon as the middle of November, minutes from their September meeting showed, and policymakers debated when they might need to raise rates amid rising inflation risks. The Fed has been buying $120 billion in bonds each month and holding the federal funds rate near zero to make borrowing cheap and keep money flowing through the economy, stoking demand and speeding up the recovery. But the central bank’s officials signaled after their Sept. 21-22 meeting that they might announce a plan to pare back those asset purchases as soon as early November. Minutes from the gathering, released Wednesday, provided additional details on that plan. The minutes suggested that “if a decision to begin tapering purchases occurred at the next meeting, the process of tapering could commence with the monthly purchase calendars beginning in either mid-November or mid-December.”
Jobless
Initial jobless claims fell below 300,000 for the first time since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday. In another sign the jobs market is getting closer to its old self, first-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 293,000, the best level since March 14, 2020, which saw 256,000 claims just as the Covid-19 spread intensified.
Retail Sales
Consumers spent at a much faster pace than expected in September, defying expectations for a pullback amid pervasive supply chain problems, the Census Bureau reported Friday. Retail sales for the month increased by 0.7%, against the Dow Jones estimate for a decline of 0.2%. Excluding auto-related sales, the number rose 0.8%, better than the 0.5% forecast. Compared with a year ago, sales were up 13.9% on the headline number and 15.6% excluding autos.
Empire State Manufacturing Index
The New York Fed’s Empire State business conditions index fell 14.5 points to 19.8 in October 2021, the regional Fed bank said Friday. Economists had expected a reading of 25, according to a survey by The Wall Street Journal. Any reading above zero indicates improving conditions. The reading of 34.3 in September was the second highest reading in the wake of the pandemic. Key details: The new-orders index slipped 9.4 points to 24.3 in October, and the shipments index sank 18 points to 8.9. Unfilled orders inched lower by 2.4 points to 18.5. Delivery times widened a bit to a new record high and both the prices paid and prices received indexes held near record highs. Optimism increased about the outlook for the next six months.
Producer Price Index PPI
Prices Paid to U.S. Producers Post Smallest Advance This Year. PPI advanced 0.5% in September, smallest increase this year. Final demand services prices cool on 16.9% drop in airfares. Prices paid to U.S. producers rose in September at the slowest pace of the year amid cooling costs of services including airfares as the delta variant impacted demand. The producer price index for final demand increased 0.5% from the prior month and 8.6% from a year earlier, Labor Department data showed Thursday. Excluding volatile food and energy components, the so-called core PPI rose 0.2%, the smallest advance this year, and was up 6.8% from a year ago.
JOLTS
Job openings fell in August for the first time this year, suggesting that rising COVID case counts tempered employer demand for new hires. The August Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) confirms the source of the recent slowdown in the US labor market. The tepid employment growth we’ve seen in recent months has been at least partially the result of a decline in hiring appetite. The question is whether this is a temporary speed bump due to a surge in COVID cases or if demand will continue to slacken in the months ahead.
Job openings fell for the first time in six months as the labor market's recovery slumped in August 2021.
US job openings slide for the first time in 6 months in August — and more people quit than ever. Openings fell to 10.4 million from 11.1 million, according to Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, data published Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected openings to drop to 10.93 million. The reading marks the first decline since December 2020. The report signals the labor shortage still going strong in August as the Delta wave intensified. Openings first shot higher through the spring as businesses struggled to attract workers. The labor shortage quickly led some firms to raise wages, while others waited for the virus threat to fade. And while job creation boomed through the summer, openings kept rising to fresh records.
U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes
Food, fuels lift U.S. import prices in September.2021. U.S. import prices rebounded in September, lifted by higher food and energy costs, but underlying imported inflation showed signs of moderating. Import prices rose 0.4% last month after falling 0.3% in August, the Labor Department said on Friday. In the 12 months through September, prices shot up 9.2% after advancing 8.9% in August. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast import prices, which exclude tariffs, increasing 0.6%.
Consumer Sentiment UM
Consumer sentiment slid 1.9% to 71.4 in early October, according to preliminary results from the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. This represents a 12.7% decline year over year. Consumer sentiment has remained for the past three months at the lows first recorded in response to last year's shutdown of the economy.
Business Inventories
Business inventories rose by 0.6% in August 2021. It’s a sign that companies are rebuilding their supply of goods, which isn’t the easiest thing to do with bottlenecks in the supply chain. A relatively low business-inventory-to-sales ratio means that companies’ inventories are flying off the shelves faster than usual. U.S. business inventories rose 0.6% in August, the government said Friday. That matched the forecast of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. Sales fell 0.1% in the month. An increase in inventories adds to gross domestic product and is usually a sign of an expanding economy.
What does it all mean? Dwindling inventory could mean that prices of goods—especially things whose production is slowing down, like cars—will continue to rise. Rising shipping and raw material costs will only boost prices further. |
