Succinct Summation of the Week's Events

Succinct Summation of the Week’s Events:

Positives,

1)Influenced by the Labor Day holiday and some big states that didn’t report, initial jobless claims fell to 216k from 229k and that was well below expectations of 233k and the lowest since February. The 4 week average fell to 229k from 238k as a print of 250k dropped out of the calculation. Continuing claims did fall back under 1.7mm to 1.68mm from 1.72mm.

2)The August ISM services index rose to 54.5 from 52.7 and that was 2 pts above expectations. While the headline figure improved, the breadth did not as 13 of 18 industries saw growth vs 14 in July. 5 reported a contraction vs 4 in July.

3)The August Logistics Managers' Index rose to 51.2, the first time above 50 in four months. LMI said inventories are "still contracting but at a much slower rate" and this led to a rise in inventory costs and warehousing prices. As to what the headline figure means, "It is not yet clear whether this move back towards expansion is a one-off deviation from the contraction we had been seeing or represents a pivot back towards expansion remains to be seen. However, it does appear that the increase in activity we observed in the 2nd half of July has spilled over into August. When taken together with other anecdotal evidence and metrics..., it seems that a move back towards continued expansion is quite possible."

4)Bank deposits bounced by $45b after dropping by a like amount in the previous week.

5)The Bank of Canada kept rates unchanged as expected as did the RBA with both leaving the door open for more if needed.