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May 18th, 2020
Insight on Plan Design & Investment Strategy Every Weekday
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Economic Events |
The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for March, adjusted for seasonal and trading day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,386.1 billion, down 5.2% from February and down 4.9% from March 2019, the Census Bureau reported.
Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $403.9 billion, a decrease of 16.4% from the previous month, and 21.6% below April 2019. Total sales for the February through April period were down 7.7% from the same period a year ago. Retail trade sales were down 15.1% from March, and 17.8% below last year. Clothing and clothing accessories stores were down 89.3% from April 2019, while nonstore retailers were up 21.6% from last year.
Tomorrow, the Census Bureau will report about housing starts in April. Thursday, the Labor Department will issue its initial claims report and the National Association of Realtors will report about existing home sales for April.
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Market Mirror |
Friday, the Dow was up 60.08 points (0.25%) at 23,685.42, the NASDAQ gained 70.84 points (0.79%) to finish at 9,014.56, and the S&P 500 increased 11.20 points (0.39%) to 2,863.70. The Russell 2000 climbed 19.44 points (1.57%) to 1,256.99, and the Wilshire 5000 closed 155.28 points (0.54%) higher at 28,934.89.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note decreased 24/32, bringing its yield up to 0.643%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond was down 8/32, increasing its yield to 1.324%.
For the week ending May 15, the Dow lost 2.65%, the NASDAQ was down 1.17%, and the S&P 500 decreased 2.26%. The Russell 2000 fell 5.46%, and the Wilshire 5000 finished 2.48% lower.
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Deals and People
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Retirement Industry People Moves
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Former principal joins Cohen & Buckmann as senior counsel; SMArtX selects president and COO; and Heartland Retirement Plan Services hires business development leader.
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ON THIS DATE: In 1798, the first Secretary of the U.S. Navy, Benjamin Stoddert, was appointed. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, a one-time U.S. representative from Illinois, was nominated for the U.S. presidency at the Republican National Convention meeting in Chicago, Illinois. In 1897, a public reading of Bram Stoker’s new novel, “Dracula, or, The Un-dead,” was performed in London. In 1934, Congress approved an act, known as the “Lindberg Act,” that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases. In 1951, the United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City. In 1980, at 8:32 a.m. PDT, Mount St. Helens, a volcanic peak in southwestern Washington, suffered a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness. In 1998, the U.S. federal government and 20 states filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying the computer software company had a “choke hold” on competitors which denied consumer choices by controlling 90% of the software market. In 2012, Facebook Inc. held its initial public offering and began trading on the NASDAQ. The company was valued at $104 billion making it the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company.
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