Topic: Financial Markets Weekly Indicators

Order Description

go through for each indicator and find the update to the indicator (unemployment insurance weekly initial claims report, trade weighted us dollar index, weekly (Friday) closing price of the S&P 500, the I iShares Dow Jones US Tech Sector and closing price of several major players) and write a short paragraph and then providing an appropriate graph that you can copy and paste into the document. I do NOT need a title page or an source document. Do not alter the style/format/font of this document. Do not add anymore indicators. The indicators (headings are already there, do not change the heading for each indicator) I am not paying for extra pages. Just go in and provide the update to the indicators.

Unemployment Insurance Weekly Initial Claims Report:

In the week ending September 27th, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 287,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 2,000 from 293,000 to 95,000. The 4-week moving average was 294,750, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 500 from 298,500 to 299,000. There were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims.  The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent for the week ending September 20, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending September 20 was 2,398,000, a decrease of 45,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since June 17, 2006 when it was 2,395,000. The previous week’s level was revised up 4,000 from 2,439,000 to 2,443,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,441,250, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since November 11, 2006 when it was 2,439,500. The previous week’s average was revised up by 1,000 from 2,460,250 to 2,461,250.

Trade Weighted US Dollar  Index: Major Currencies (FRED) Weekly Report:

For the week ending 10/04/14 the trade weighted US Dollar Index of major currencies increased by a trivial amount from $79.37 of last week to $80.12. The change this week is minimal, and will have little to no impact on actual trade values. This report is a measure of the foreign exchange value of the US Dollar when compared to certain other currencies. This is an indicator of the worth of the US Dollar at a given point in time, and summarizes the value of the dollar in other markets. When the value of the US Dollar increases, the cost of exports to other countries will be driven up, while the cost of imports will drop.

Weekly (Friday) closing price of the S&P 500:

The S&P 500 is a frequently used benchmark for assessing evaluating the US Stock Market. Because it is based on an index of 500 stocks that are chosen for a variety of reasons (including market size, industry, and liquidity), it is widely accepted as the most accurate definition of the market at a given point in time. To be considered for inclusion in the S&P 500, companies must first meet these liquidity requirements-
•    Market capitalization is greater than or equal to $4B (US)
•    Annual dollar value traded to float-adjusted market capitalization is greater than 1
•    Minimum monthly trading volume of 250,000 shares in each of the six months leading up to the evaluation date.
Once a company is chosen to be included, the index is float weighted. Float weighting calculates the market capitalization of each company relevant to the index using only the number of shares available for public trading.
Friday’s (10/03/2014) market opening found stocks finishing 21.73 higher than the day prior but 14.95 lower than last week.  As noted in a previous report, some industries are heavily represented in the S&P 500 so the price rating may be swayed by significant successes and failures of one or more industries as a whole.  Investors will be watching the jobless numbers to confirm whether or not the uptick in the GDP (4.6%) translates to an increase in jobs and a slow but continual economic recovery.

Weekly (Friday) closing price of the iShares Dow Jones US Tech Sector Exchange Traded Fund (IYW):

iShares U.S. Technology ETF is a non-diversified fund which measures the performance of the technology sector of the US equity market. This is inclusive of companies in industry groups such as software and computer services and technology hardware and equipment. In the week ending 9/26/14, the fund saw just short of a dollar decrease from last week’s reporting of $100.70 to $99.88. Within the past six months the fund has grown 9.66 points or 9.91. So the past month’s loss of .81% should not be read as more than data points which are in-keeping with the organic market progression of the industry.

The above graph is representative of the changes within the last week.   Since Apple Inc possesses 18.093% there is a likelihood that with the recent release of the iPhone 6 that there will be a positive change.

Weekly (Friday) closing price of several major players within the financial services industry:

Several of the major players in the financial services industry are Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Capital One Financial Corporation (COF). While these are each firms are representatives of the same industry, their scope of product offerings are quite diverse. This week found an increase for each firm.