Why were so many economic indicators so feeble in February? Maybe it was the weather. Janet Yellen thought so – on February 27, she told Congress that the miserable winter much of the U.S. was enduring was likely distorting economic reports for the worse. Read more in our March economic update.
Headwinds certainly increased in January as subpar earnings and anxieties about emerging markets unnerved Wall Street. January ended up as the poorest month for stocks since May 2012. Read more in our February economic report.
In a late-November CNN poll, only 24% of Americans felt that an economic recovery was underway; 39% felt the U.S. was still in a downturn. Perception aside, economic indicators out in December showed an economy clearly on the way back. Stocks finished 2013 with a flourish and the jobless rate fell to a 59-month low. Read more in our January economic update.
Will 2013 go in the books as the best year for U.S. stocks since the mid-1990s? It may. At the end of November, the S&P 500 was already up 26.62% YTD. November brought more signals of an improving economy. Early in the month, the Labor Department stated that 204,000 new jobs were created in October, better than the average monthly gain of 190,000 during the past year. November also brought the federal government’s first estimate of Q3 GDP – a surprisingly good 2.8%. Read more in our December economic update.
The bulls had two challenges to overcome in October: the 16 day closure of most of the Federal government and the threat of U.S. debt default. Read more in our November economic update.
September began with the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Syria; it ended with the probability of a federal government shutdown. In between those anxieties, the S&P 500 managed to rise 2.97%. Credit goes to the Federal Reserve, which surprised financial markets worldwide. Read more in our October economic update.