Illumina jumped almost 17% on January 11 on higher guidance for 2022. Here’s what that tells us about this market and its growth fears. (And why I will continue to hold Illumina shares)
Initial claims for unemployment in regular state programs rose by 2,000 to 373,000 for the week ended July 3, the Labor Department reported today. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for initial claims to drop to 350,000. Now this may be disappointing to those hoping for evidence that the recovery from the pandemic recession nearly complete and that the economy is going from one strength to the next, but the data are a very thin reed to use to support headlines about growth worries in the economy like those I’ve seen today.
This morning Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave reassuring inflation testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. Prices would rise this year as Americans are able to go out and spend post-pandemic, but while “We do expect that inflation will move up over the course of this year,” he said. “Our best view is that the effect on inflation will be neither particularly large nor persistent.” As you might expect on that view, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury dropped 5 basis points to 1.64% as of 2 p.m. New York time on Tuesday, March 23. On most days recently a drop in Treasury yields like that would have produced a significant rally in stocks. But not today.
