Remember MSCI Data Products Can Help You Anticipate Changes In The Marketplace

Connecting the Dots monitors all major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but MSCI also offers industrial metals industry-specific data products that provide much deeper analysis and insight. Visit MSCI’s website and click on industry data to learn more about our Metals Activity Report (MAR), Momentum Monitors, and Economic Pulse.

Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• U.S. wholesale inventories declined 0.4 percent from February 2024 to March 2024 and 2.3 percent from March 2023 to March 2024. Inventories of petroleum, lumber, furniture, machinery, and computer equipment advanced while stocks of motor vehicles, metals, hardware, paper, medication, apparel, groceries, farm products, and alcohol declined.
• Canadian employers added 90,000 jobs in April while the country’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1 percent. The employment gains primarily were driven by the addition of 50,000 part-time jobs. Read the full report here.
• The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 231,000 during the week that ended May 4, a number that was up by 22,000 from the week before. Averaged over the past four weeks, first-time claims rose to 215,000. In all, roughly 1.785 million people claimed jobless benefits during the week that ended April 27.