The Economy Rocks! - Kuby's Commentary 05.03.2021

The S&P 500 reached another record high on Thursday after robust U.S. growth figures, as the first-quarter GDP expanded at 6.4%, beating estimates of a 6.1% annualized rate. That left the world's largest economy within 1% of its peak reached in late 2019, just before the coronavirus pandemic came to the U.S. The Labor Department also revealed that 553,000 new weekly jobless claims were filed in its latest report, marking another pandemic low, although still double the longer-term average rate. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index raced to a reading of 121.7 this month. That was the highest level since February 2020, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and followed a reading of 109.0 in March. Due to the number and magnitude of positive earnings surprises during the week, the earnings growth rate for the first quarter growth rate increased to 45.8%, compared to an earnings growth rate of 33.8% last week and an earnings growth rate of 23.8% at the end of the first quarter (March 31). On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the jobs report for April, with expectations for a gain of nearly one million jobs.