By The Numbers
Allie Schmidt, Financial Advisor, CFP®, CPA
Each week we receive a sheet called By The Numbers (“BTN”) from our partners at MFS Investments. You’ve seen us put together our own BTN from time to time to address different topics in our blogs: The Facts Surrounding RECESSIONS and Market Correction: By The Numbers. It is a great way to give some perspective and pure data to different events and I find this way of looking at things just plain interesting.
Here are a few that I thought were especially fascinating and thought you might agree.
NEED WORK?
51% of the 2.25 million new jobs created in the United States during the 12 months ending 7/31/19 were produced in just 6 states–Texas (323,300 jobs), California (311,800), Florida (227,200), Washington (102,400), New York (95,500) and North Carolina (75,700) (source: Department of Labor).
TRADE TENSIONS–
60% of 1,503 Americans surveyed in June 2019 hold an “unfavorable” view of China. Ten years ago (2009), just 38% of Americans viewed China “unfavorably” (source: Pew Research).
JAPAN > CHINA-
Japan replaced China as the largest foreign holder of US Treasury debt as of June 2019. Japan ($1.123 trillion) has increased its holdings by $90 billion during the last year while China ($1.113 trillion) has reduced its holdings by $79 billion over the last year (source: Treasury Department).
STOCKS AND POLITICS–
In the last 50 years (1969-2018), the S&P 500 has been up +17.5% per year (total return) under a Democratic President and a Republican-led Congress, 4 times the +4.5% annual return achieved under a Republican President and a Congress controlled by the Democrats. The stock index gained +12.3% per year when the White House and Congress were controlled by the same political party. When the House and the Senate were controlled by different parties as is the case in 2019 (regardless of which party is in the White House), the S&P 500 has been up +9.2% per year. The S&P 500 consists of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry group representation. It is a market value weighted index with each stock’s weight in the index proportionate to its market value (source: MFS Investments BTN Research).
REAL ESTATE–
Builders began construction on 876,000 single-family homes in the United States in 2018, the 7th consecutive year of increasing housing starts, i.e., 2012-2018. The peak in housing starts (1.716 million) took place in 2005 (source: Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University).
BIG BUCKS–
The 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan over 17 days beginning Friday 7/24/20. Olympic organizers in Japan have already raised more than $3.1 billion in sponsorship funds, making the games the largest financially sponsored event in sports history (source: Tokyo Organizing Committee).
BLEW IT–
The Colorado Rockies led the San Diego Padres 11-5 going into the 9th inning of a game on 6/14/19, but lost the game 16-12, the worst 9th inning collapse in major league baseball this year (source: MLB).
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly. The economic forecasts set forth in this material may not develop as predicted and there can be no guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful. There is no guarantee that a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform a non-diversified portfolio. Diversification does not protect against market risk. Bonds are subject to market and interest rate risk if sold prior to maturity. Bond values will decline as interest rates rise and bonds are subject to availability and change in price.
