Unemployment, A Nasdaq Milestone, and Is Inflation Approaching?

~4.3 million more Americans filed for unemployment this week, and while that brings the quarantine-era total to ~26 million, inching us closer to a 20% unemployment rate, new claims are trending downward. Unfortunately, so are our manufacturing numbers which have slipped well into contraction territory and are on a path to revisit their financial-crisis lows. Meanwhile, as the Nasdaq’s market cap hit a historic milestone, investors are turning a critical eye to companies, their balance sheets (and subsequent preparedness to ride out the lean times), and their credit worthiness. Are more downgrades on the horizon? Inflation may be, as the massive wave of QE just pushed the growth rate of the U.S. broad money supply to its highest point in modern history! And there’s more stimulus on the way too; the House passed another $480 billion in coronavirus relief funding yesterday and Congress is already in talks on a Phase 4 deal—where’s it all going? Finally, over in China, investors are piling into defensive positions. But with yields on money-market funds falling, is this “flight to safety” all that safe?