by Maurice (Mo) Spolan, Investment Research Analyst
U.S., international and emerging market equities were all up between 1% and 3% last week. Fixed income indices, such as the widely followed Barclay’s Aggregate, have provided returns only slightly above zero over the last month, a result of the historically low rate environment in which investors are participating.

The U.S. added about 1.2 million jobs in July, a considerable deceleration from the 4.8 million added during June. While employment gains are certainly welcomed amidst a global pandemic, the slowdown may indicate the unfortunate possibility that new job growth is plateauing. This is troublesome because the unemployment rate remains very high, at 10.2%.

With Q2 corporate earnings almost complete, S&P 500 constituents have experienced an aggregate decline in earnings of 33%, the greatest year-over-year stumble since 2008. With that said, analysts expected earnings to erode by 40%, so companies have beaten expectations.

As Democrats and Republicans remain distant in their proposed stimulus packages, President Trump signed an executive order over the weekend to provide fiscal support. Whether the order will actually come into effect, however, is uncertain, as several legal analysts believe that it is unconstitutional for the president to supersede congressional spending authority.