US stocks rose over the week on positive economic news and corporate earnings topping expectations. The S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the Dow surged 1.8% for the week. Abroad, the FTSE All World Ex US was climbed 1.8% for the week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed over the week to end at 0.71%, its highest level in nearly two months.
Weekly initial jobless claims dropped to 963,000 for the past week, the first time below 1 million since the pandemic hit the US in March, and was better than estimates.
US retail sales rose 1.2% in July, surpassing the retail spending level before the pandemic.
US CPI rose 0.6% in July and core prices rose 0.6% as well.
The UK economy contracted 20.4% in the second quarter, or 59.8% on an annualized basis. It was the worst contraction seen in Europe. Comparably, Germany and the US contracted 10%, Italy declined 12%, France 14%, and Spain 19%.
Of the 91% of companies on the S&P 500 that had reported by Monday, 82% had beaten analysts’ profit forecasts, according to FactSet.