Last week's holiday shortened trading saw fractional gains in most major U.S equity indexes except for the small cap Russell 200 Index. The small cap index declined .4% on the week and only remains up .6% for the year. Small caps continue to lag the broader S&P 500 Index which is higher by 8.6% year to date through Friday's close. The one piece of weak economic news reported last week was the +142,000 increase in non-farm payrolls. The consensus estimate prior to the release was an anticipated increase of 230,000. The market seemed to shake off this miss as the month of August tends to be a particular month that is frequently revised.
The coming week will be light on potential market moving economic reports. Jobless claims will be reported Thursday and retail sales will be reported on Friday. Given the importance of the consumer on GDP, the retail report will be watched closely. The magazine link below includes an article by Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab highlights sentiment data, GDP component changes from Q1 to Q2 and a number of additional pros and cons on recent economic data.
Lastly, the U.S. market has managed to dismiss geopolitical events around the globe. An event that will take place on September 18th is the Scottish referendum to separate from the United Kingdom. A couple of articles in the magazine touch on the potential significance if the referendum is approved by the Scottish citizens.
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