The First Stock Market Week of 2023 | Weekly Excerpt January 10, 2010

The market's first trading week

As we enter 2023, we remain focused on the pace of inflation decline in the United States, the path of energy prices in the European Union and China's ability to exit Zero Covid. As we have noted in recent months, all three have been moving in the right direction and with some speed (especially in the case of China), which points to the fourth quarter rally in risk assets.

Employment trends at the end of 2022

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics opened the first trading week of the year with 2 reports on employment levels, January 4 indicated that, over the month of November 2022, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 6.1 million and 5.9 million, respectively.

Within separations, resignations (4.2 million) and dismissals (1.4 million) changed little.

This means that for November, a net 1.1 million new hires were added according to the BLS.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in December and has remained in a narrow range of 3.5% to 3.7% since March. The number of unemployed fell to 5.7 million in December.