US stocks ended the week at an all-time high. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% and the Dow was flat for the week. Abroad, the FTSE All World Ex US was declined 0.7% for the week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased over the week to end at 0.64%, down from 0.71% last week.
In the Fed’s July meeting minutes officials expressed concern over the economy and its continued recovery. They believed additional support was needed for the economy from both the government and the Fed. However, they didn’t come to any conclusions on what support they would provide or when that would occur.
Weekly initial jobless claims rose to 1.1 million after declining for three straight weeks. However, the total number of people receive unemployment benefits dropped to 14.8 million the lowest level since April.
IHS Markit’s purchasing managers index, measuring manufacturing and services activity, rose solidly into expansion territory in the US in July, but the Eurozone saw slowing growth and Japan posted a contraction.
Sales of previously owned homes rose 24.7% in July over June. It was the strongest monthly gain ever recorded and the highest monthly sales pace since December 2006.
Apple became the first public company ever with a market cap of $2 trillion and Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Amazon now make up 25% of the S&P 500.