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FWF Market Insights: January 13, 2021

BUSINESSES, MASKS, AND STAY-AT-HOME MAPS

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

This report serves to help understand the economic trends occurring in the states that are currently open or are in the process of opening up. All data is pulled from external sources, which are given credit throughout.

WEEKLY ECONOMIC INDEX (WEI)

The Weekly Economic Index (WEI) is a measure taken from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Essentially, this takes data from past quarters, most recently Q4 2020, and compares it to similar data from this quarter on a weekly basis to give an estimation for where GDP currently stands. It is not a precise measurement, but it is known to be fairly accurate. This is an overall measure, therefore covering the U.S. as a whole. It can be deemed as a good starting point for looking at the current economic standing.

  • Currently, the WEI is sitting around -1.47 percent for the week ending January 9, compared to -1.49 percent for the week prior.

*Data is from the New York Fed

UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS

Taken from the United States Department of Labor, the data below shows the initial unemployment claims from each state. When looking at week-over-week change, it is evident that over half of the states are seeing at least a small rise in claims. The big outlier one can see is Illinois, which had a week-over-week change of over 60,000 fewer claims than the week prior.

*Data is from the United States Department of Labor

*Data is from the United States Department of Labor

COVID-19 DATA

The following data has been taken from Reuters and represents the current 7-day average of COVID-19 cases currently in the U.S.

*Data is from Reuters Graphics

Listed below are the statistics as of last week for states that are re-opening and have 5,000+ confirmed cases within the states. These figures will change as the states continue to open more, meaning that next week’s update will most likely show a different picture than the current data.

*Data is from Reuters Graphics

For a visual reference of all states, the graphic below shows new cases per week for every state in the U.S. The orange line represents new cases and the blue bar represents a decline in cases for 2 consecutive weeks. Furthermore, the graphs are laid out where each state is located geographically in the United States.

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