The Federal Reserve Interest Rate decision occurred the prior week, with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates another quarter as expected by many industry analysts. This has given the market a lot of optimism that the trend will still continue and the Chairman Jerome Powell has stated it’s a good time to wait and see where the economy is headed before cutting rates further, giving further confidence more will be coming next year. There was also the U.S. Trade Deficit to gauge where the current trade policies have positioned the U.S. and it has been reported that the expectations for…

The PCE Index reports have come in—albeit delayed—and show inflation numbers that fell within expectations. The data also indicates that inflation has not worsened since before the government shutdown. It is widely believed that the Federal Reserve will likely cut rates once more. This is followed by another Consumer Spending report showing that spending rose in September and October, though the momentum appears to be slowing. Much of the optimism in the broader markets going forward hinges on the potential for further interest rate cuts. Consumer SpendingPersonal spending rose 0.3% in September, the government said Friday. That was a touch…

Many of the reports scheduled for release last week were delayed yet again, including the anticipated unemployment data. There is an expectation that they will be released next week. The only on-time release was the third-party Consumer Sentiment report from the University of Michigan, which aligned with expectations and generally indicated that consumers remain dissatisfied with the current state of things, citing high prices and consistently weakening incomes. Univ. of Michigan Consumer ReportConsumer sentiment was little changed this month with a 2.6 index point decrease from October that is within the margin of error. After the federal shutdown ended, sentiment…