Jobless Claims Near 50-Year Low

Brian Mackey, senior research analyst at Adviser Investments, has the market analysis for Thursday, July 19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.5% and the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite each declined 0.4%. President Trump’s critique of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes dominated headlines, with bondA financial instrument representing an IOU from the borrower to the lender. Bond issuers promise to pay bond holders a given amount of interest for a pre-determined amount of time until the loan is repaid in full (otherwise known as the maturity date). Bonds can have a fixed or floating interest rate. Fixed-rate bonds pay out a pre-determined amount of interest each year, while floating-rate bonds can pay higher or lower interest each year depending on prevailing market interest rates. yieldsYield is a measure of the income on an investment in relation to the price. There are several ways to measure yield. The current yield of a security is the income over the past year (either dividends or coupon payments) divided by the current price. dropping immediately following his interview. We also saw weekly jobless claims data released—revealing a nearly 50-year low among people applying for benefits. This is a positive indicator for the broader economy because it implies a strong employment picture and, thus, a healthy consumer.