Another Rough Week
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The hardships continue. The S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq all dropped at least 0.6% this past week. 1.42 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits, accelerating for the first time in nearly four months. Market expectations were only at 1.30 million. This increase is likely due to many states scaling back or pausing their reopenings. Despite this, some industries such as health care and logistics have been experiencing strong hiring. Since May, around 20% of all new job postings have been in the health field.
The real estate market continues to chug upwards. With mortgage rates still sitting at the lowest it’s been in years, applications rose for the third consecutive period by 4.1%. Sales of previously owned houses skyrocketed 20.7% from the previous -9.7%. New home sales also rose by 13.8%. Housing remains strong.
Despite shooting upwards to nearly $1700 per share this week, Tesla pulled back to $1408.88. The unicorn of the stock market continues to surprise investors, especially bearish ones that think it is overbought. Posting gains for Q2 in their recent financial report, the electric car company will be included in the S&P 500 with a market value of $295 billion.
Other areas of growth in the tech world include AMD, with shares rising 16.50% on Friday alone to 69.40 per share. Intel, one of AMD’s biggest competitors, lost their contract with Apple and was forced to delay their latest 7-nanometer production process. Investors have all but deserted the company and moved on to TSMC.
Goldman Sachs finally settled the IMDB dilemma with Malaysia for $3.9 billion. The elite bank allegedly aided in the theft of billions from a government investment fund. Wells Fargo has been forced to make cuts in employment and slash costs. Other banks will likely follow suit soon.
