05 Sep 2003

Posted at 16:08h in The Friday Brief by
The S&P is up 2% and the NASDAQ is up 3.2% for the week.  Progress continues on the economic front as signs mount that the recovery is fully underway.  The short week following Labor Day started on a high note with ISM Manufacturing rising to 54.7, its highest reading since December.  It was also the second month above 50 signaling thatU.S.manufacturing is growing after four months of contraction.  The Institute’s production index rose to 61.6, the highest in four years.  Inventories are lean so factories must step up production to meet rising demand.  But so far, the increase in factory output has not increased hiring as productivity continues to rise faster than the economy.

15 Aug 2003

Posted at 16:19h in The Friday Brief by
Stock investors earnestly began to believe that the U.S. economy was in recovery on March 12th.  Microsoft and Intel were among the volume leaders that day as major headlines read “U.S. stock indexes have biggest gains in five months.”  Sparking the rally were comments from the administration indicating that it would extend diplomatic efforts to disarmIraq, effectively delaying the war.  In the following days many analysts characterized the good market action as a short-term reaction to news war delay, but time has shown know that investors were looking at the larger picture and anticipating economic recovery beyond the war.  

08 Aug 2003

Posted at 16:20h in The Friday Brief by
Yesterday, the Labor Department reported that productivity grew more than twice as fast in the second quarter than in the previous three months as the economy accelerated.  The increase of 5.7% was considerably over analysts’ estimates of 4.1% and the fastest since the third quarter of last year.