{"id":2077,"date":"2020-08-21T11:26:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T11:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2020-11-18T09:31:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T09:31:54","slug":"market-update-21st-august-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/2020\/08\/21\/market-update-21st-august-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Update \u2013 21st August 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\">\n<div class=\"wpb_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\">\n<div class=\"vc_column-inner \">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"vc_message_box vc_message_box-standard vc_message_box-rounded vc_color-violet\">\n<p><strong>Please note:\u00a0<\/strong>next week\u2019s market updates (from Monday 24th August \u2013 Friday 28th August) will be a written commentary only. Our video updates will resume from Tuesday 1st September 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\">\n<div class=\"wpb_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\">\n<div class=\"vc_column-inner \">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpb_raw_code wpb_content_element wpb_raw_html\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WeqwRtr2h5U?rel=0&amp;wmode=transparent\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\">\n<div class=\"wpb_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\">\n<div class=\"vc_column-inner \">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<p>On the surface, yesterday\u2019s (20 August 2020) US jobless data was disappointing as initial claims unexpectedly increased back above 1m, with a reading of 1.1m for the week ending Saturday 15 August 2020, while the previous week\u2019s reading was revised higher to 971,000.<\/p>\n<p>However, continuing claims came in better than expected at 14.84m, while the previous week\u2019s reading was revised down (which is good news) to 15.48m.<\/p>\n<p>We have previously warned that economic data is likely to be bumpy \u2013 and this data reading does clearly highlight that the coronavirus continues to significantly and strangely impact the US economy, in that the US employment market isn\u2019t seeing the \u2018V-shaped\u2019 recovery that, for example, the retail sales or the housing market is seeing.\u00a0 As such, we don\u2019t believe that the US economic recovery is stalling:\u00a0 it is more of a minor stumble on the road to recovery.<\/p>\n<p>However, the key question for us is how will the US politicians react?\u00a0 We believe this jobless data clearly highlights that politicians in Washington, from both sides of the aisle, need to stop playing brinkmanship at the expense of hard-hit American workers and agree a new US fiscal stimulus package \u2013 especially as failing to provide fiscal support in the face of the recent resurgence in coronavirus cases and the current elevated unemployment levels, could have a significant impact on US swing states (i.e. those that could be won by either\u00a0the Republicans or Democrats) come the Presidential elections on Tuesday 3 November 2020.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a different story in the UK this morning, with both retail sales and PMI (Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index) data impressively beating expectations following the reopening of the UK economy.<\/p>\n<p>UK retail sales rose 2% in July compared to June, led by \u2018non-food sales\u2019 which saw a 10% increase (which includes textile, clothing and footwear, which saw an 11.9% increase) \u2013 implying that consumers remain confident about both their jobs and personal finances.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, UK PMI for August had a hat-trick beat, with the composite reading jumping to 60.3.\u00a0 Services led this advance, rising to 60.1, while manufacturing rose to 55.3.\u00a0 Although some of this surprise can be attributed to the government\u2019s hospitality VAT cut and the \u2018eat-out-to-help-out\u2019 scheme, nevertheless, as 50 is the line separating expansion and contraction, these readings not only show that the UK economy is moving in the right direction but is actually recovering very strongly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Investment Management Team<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n  <\/div> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please note:\u00a0next week\u2019s market updates (from Monday 24th August \u2013 Friday 28th August) will be a written commentary only. Our video updates will resume from Tuesday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2129,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions\/2129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.wealthatwork.co.uk\/jpm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}