Stock Rover was named as “Best of the Web” in the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Computerized Investing 2020 Best of the Web awards. Stock Rover was cited in two separate categories as Best of the Web; Stock Screening and Stock Research and Data. Stock Rover also received an honorable mention in the Portfolio Tracking and Optimization category. You can read the press release here.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed job openings were up slightly to 6.4 million on the last day of September.  The job openings rate was unchanged at 4.3% while the layoffs rate fell to 0.9% from 1.1% in August.  Little has changed between August and September. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 7.9% unemployment rate as of September, which equates to about 12.6 million people (a conservative number at best), which translates to an average of two unemployed workers vying for every job opening.

The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA)  Short-Term Energy Outlook expects retail sales of electricity to the commercial sector to fall by 6.4% in 2020 due to the closure of many businesses and the impact of COVD-19. The EAI also predicts that the residential sector will fare better with a sales increase of about 2.5%. Consumption of electricity in the United States is forecasted to decrease by 3.6% in 2020.  Renewable energy will be the fastest-growing source of new electricity generation. Coal powered generation is expected to decline in the short-term and then later rebound as a result of increased natural gas prices and increased demand in electric power consumption.

The Labor Department reported that the producer price index for final demand increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in October after climbing 0.4 % in September. Nearly 60% of the rise in the final demand index is a result of a 0.5% increase in prices for final demand goods, while 40% can be traced to final demand transportation and warehousing services, which increased 1.1%. Producer prices increased slightly more than anticipated due to a jump in food prices, which surged 2.4% amid a spike in fresh and dry vegetable prices. Energy costs climbed by 0.8%, the most in 3 months, reflecting higher gasoline prices. The producer-price index excluding food and energy rose 0.1% from a month earlier, representing the smallest increase since June. This report comes on the heels of an earlier Labor Department report indicating that the consumer price index remained unchanged in October.