July 27, 2020

The U.S. stock markets was negative last week with the S&P 500 down 0.27%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.74% and the Nasdaq down 1.33%.    

This is a busy week for economic news with the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on monetary policy and more corporate earnings results being reported.  Republicans are expected to reveal their coronavirus economic aid package today and said it will likely be capped at $1 trillion. The previous aid package, the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act was more than $2 trillion. Republicans are looking to replace the $600 additional weekly unemployment benefits with a 70% wage replacement.

The Commerce Department reported today that U.S. core capital goods orders beat expectations for June.  Orders for non-defense capital goods rose 3.3% in June, with economists forecasting 2.4%.  Shipments for core capital goods also picked up to 3.4%. 

Coronavirus cases rose over the weekend, however some states showed signs of slowing in some U.S. states including Arizona and Texas.   However, Florida reported more than 12,400 daily cases surpassing New York’s daily case count.  California is still the hardest hit with a total case count of more than 452,000.