U.S. Stock indices ended the week modestly lower as increasing inflation raised concerns that the FED will need to raise rates sooner.  Developed foreign stocks and emerging markets ended the week with gains.  President Biden is expected to sign the $1.2TN bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday to increase spending on transportation, broadband and the electrical grid.

Treasury yields rose with the 30-year bond yield closing at 1.934% and the 10-Year note closing at 1.566%.  Crude oil fell to $80.69 a barrel and natural gas fell to $4.875 per MMBTUs.  The U.S. dollar index rose to 95.12 and gold rose to $1867.70 an ounce.

In the economic numbers:

• China reported:
  • Exports rose 27.1% in October from a year earlier, while imports rose 20.6%.  Coal and natural gas imports rose sharply as China has been experiencing shortages of these commodities and has had rolling power blackouts.
  • Producer prices have risen 13.5% from a year ago in October, the highest in 26 years.  
  • Consumer prices have risen 1.5% year over year in October as wholesalers continue to absorb price increases.
• The U.K. reported that gross domestic product rose 1.3% in the third quarter. 
• The Labor Department reported: 
  • The consumer-price index rose at a 6.2% annual rate in October, the highest since 1990.  CPI has been above 5% for the past five months.
    • Core prices, excluding volatile food and energy rose 4.6% up from 4.0% in September and the highest since 1991.
    • Prices rose for most goods except for airfare and alcohol falling.

• • The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS showed a record 4.4MM Americans quit their jobs in September and there were 10.7MM job openings.
  • The 4-week moving average of claims, designed to smooth out volatility, was 278,000.
  • Continuing claims was little changed at 2.1MM in the week ending October 30th. 
  • A broader measure of claims including extended benefits, pandemic assistance and other programs fell from 2.7MM to 2.6MM in the week ended October 23^rd.
  • For the full unemployment report go here:  https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf .
• The EIA weekly oil report is here: http://ir.eia.gov/wpsr/wpsrsummary.pdf .  Also, the EIA reported in the prior week:
  • Field production of crude oil was unchanged at 11.5MM BPD.
  • Natural gas storage rose 7BN cubic feet and is below the 5-year average at this time of year.
• Baker Hughes reported the number of active oil rigs rose 4 to 454.  The number of active natural gas rigs rose 2 to 102.Please call us if you have any questions.

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Loren C. Rex, CFP^®, MA                                                                     Erik A Smith, AIF®

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 These are the opinions of Loren Rex and Erik Smith and are not necessarily those of Cambridge, are for informational purposes only, and should not be construed or acted upon as individualized investment advice.  The Indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly.