February 19, 2021
After a series of record-setting sessions, stocks struggled to find direction this week. Another string of strong economic reports – this time from retail sales and industrial output – were not enough to push stocks higher for the week. Investors turned cautious towards week’s end as initial claims for unemployment increased by 13,000 from the prior week to 861,000. That was higher from the previous week’s figures which were revised upwards by 55,000 to 848,000. Given that Covid cases appear to be on the decline, the vaccine rollout is gathering speed, and governments are loosening restrictions, markets grew wary that the continued layoffs suggest businesses are opting to remain lean rather than ramping up as markets had expected. For the week, the Dow rose 0.11%.