The Week In Numbers report – February 2nd, 2024

Brief

This report covers the 5th week of the year spanning Friday, January 26th, through Friday, February 2nd, 2024. The week in numbers provides key statistics and data, economic reports, market performance and fun science stats for the week.

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Highlights

• FOMC Rate Decision – The Fed kept rates the same between 5.25-5.50% target
• The US National Debt has increased 2.73 Trillion since the National Debt ceiling was suspended on June 1st, 2023
• US Stocks post an average gain of 1.19% for the week
• The S&P500 Consumer Discretionary sector performed the best this week, gaining 3.77%
• The S&P500 Energy Sector performed the worst this week, dropping 1.01%
• The Crypto Market was up 2.46% with Bitcoin (BTC) leading the rise gaining $1,323 or 3.16% to close the week at 43,189.15
• Lean Hogs commodity futures are up 23.3% YTD leading the rise of best performing assets so far YTD

View our Economic Indicators Dashboard for up-to-date economic stats.

Economic Reports

Monday, January 29th

• No notable economic reports

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Tuesday, January 30th

• Consumer Confidence for January increased 114.8, more than the expected increase of 113.0 and more than the prior month’s increase of 108.0
• JOLTS – Job Openings for December increased 9.026M, more than the prior month’s increase of 8.925M

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Wednesday, January 31st

• ADP Employment Change for January was 107K, less than the expected 140K and less than the prior month’s 158K
• Employment Cost Index for last week was 0.9%, less than the expected 1.0% and less than the prior week’s 1.1%
• FOMC Rate Decision – The Fed kept rates the same between 5.25-5.50% target

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Thursday, February 1st

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week increased by 9,000 to 224,000 new claims, reasonably higher than the expected 200,000
• Continuing Jobless Claims increased by 70,000 to 1.90 million
• Productivity-Prel for last week increased 3.2%, more than the expected increase of 2.1% and less than the prior week’s increase of 4.9%
• Unit Labor Costs-Prel for last week increased 0.5%, less than the expected increase of 1.9% and more than the prior week’s decrease of 1.1%
• ISM Manufacturing Index for January increased 49.1%, more than the expected increase of 47.3% and more than the prior month’s increase of 47.1%

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Friday, February 2nd

• Nonfarm Payrolls for January increased 353K, more than the expected increase of 175K and more than the prior month’s increase of 333K
• Nonfarm Private Payrolls for January increased 317K, more than the expected increase of 150K and more than the prior month’s increase of 278K
• Avg. Hourly Earnings for January increased 0.6%, more than the expected increase of 0.3% and more than the prior month’s increase of 0.4%
• Unemployment Rate for January increased 3.7%, less than the expected increase of 3.8% but matched the prior month’s increase of 3.7%
• Average Workweek for January was 34.1, less than the expected 34.4 and less than the prior month’s 34.3

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Next Week’s Major Reports

• ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI – Monday, February 5th

See more Economic News at Briefing.com or learn about each economic report in our knowledge hub.

US Stocks

Global Stocks

Currencies

Commodities

• Average US Regular Gas Price – increased 3.3 cents or 1.08% this week to $3.095 a gallon. See more about US Regular Gas Prices.
• EIA Crude Oil Inventories – increased by 1.23M barrels last week compared to prior week decrease of 9.23M
• EIA Natural Gas Inventories – decreased 197 bcf last week compared to prior week decrease of 326 bcf (billion cubic feet)

Interest Rates

• Federal Funds Effective Rate – has remained the same this week at 5.33% with the target rate rage increasing to 5.25-5.50% since the July 26th, 2023 increase of 25 basis points. See more about the Federal Funds Rate.
• 30 Year Average US Mortgage Rates – decreased this week to 6.63% from 6.69% last week. Learn more about 30 year mortgage rates.
• MBA Mortgage Applications Index – decreased by 7.2% this week compared to the prior week increase of 3.7%

Cryptocurrencies

• Total Crypto Market Cap – increased 2.46% or 39.7B this week to 1,656B

Fascinating Stats

US National Debt

The US National Debt increased 102.8 billion (Wednesday, January 24th to Wednesday, January 31st), to a total debt of $34,191,150,402,393.64 according to the Treasury Department. The National Debt Ceiling of 31.381 trillion has been suspended as of June 1st, 2023 until January 1st, 2025. See the Debt to the Penny.

US National Debt Increase (Billions)

305.6	253.2	532.2	179.1	122.8	189.7
Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan

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Space Weather – Solar Sunspots

The number of solar Sunspots (magnetic storms on the surface of the sun facing Earth) has increased this week to 113 from 101 last week, the sun has had 0 spotless days in 2024. We are about 2 years into a 5 year solar cycle known as Solar Maximum where sunspots are in constant very high numbers. See more about Sunspots and space weather.

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Exoplanet Discoveries

NASA has cataloged 0 new exoplanets this week, the total has remained at 5,572 confirmed and catalogued Exoplanets across 4,283 confirmed Planetary Systems. 6 Exoplanets have been confirmed this year so far and there are 10,065 Exoplanet Candidates being evaluated for confirmation. Learn about all of the Exoplanets from NASA’s Exoplanet Catalog.