The Fed: 39 US States Saw Their Economies Strengthen in September

HEFFX
By Paul Ebeling

In September the output strengthened in 39 US states up from August with some of the best gainers concentrated in northeastern territories including Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, a Fed proxy showed.

Readings weakened in 8 states, with the steepest fall in tourism-dependent Hawaii, and remained stable in 3 as Q-3 closed, according to the Philadelphia Fed’s State Coincident Indexes report released Friday.

Longer term, several states have almost fully rebounded back to their pre-Covid-19 marks. Nebraska, Utah and Missouri came back in September to within 1% of their February readings, while Georgia, Kentucky, Montana and Oklahoma were less than 2 pts away.

The indexes combine 4 state-level indicators: payroll employment, manufacturing hrs worked, the jobless rate, and wages paid to summarize current economic conditions.

Over the past 3 months, the Fed’s national index has increased by 2.3% as 48 states showed improvement and just 2 saw declines: Hawaii and New Mexico.

Friday, the benchmark US stock market indexes finished at: DJIA -28.09 at 28335.51, NAS Comp +42.28 at 11548.21, S&P 500 +11.90 at 3465.39

Volume: Trade on the NYSE came in light at 722-M shares exchanged

HeffX-LTN’s overall technical analysis for the major US stock market indexes for the week ended 23 October 2020 is Bullish with a Very Bullish bias.

NAS Comp +28.7% YTD
S&P 500 +7.3% YTD
DJIA -0.7% YTD
Russell 2000 -1.7% YTD
Looking Ahead: Investors will receive New Home Sales for September Monday.

Have a healthy weekend, Keep the Faith!