Weekly Market Commentary October 20th to October 24th 2025
Due to the continued government shutdown, this week’s economic data releases were limited. However, several unaffected reports provided noteworthy insights.
Existing Home Sales saw a monthly increase of 1.5% in September, hitting an annual rate of 4.06 million units. This follows a period of weakness in the housing market and is largely attributed to more favorable mortgage rates.
Additionally, the month’s most critical release, the core CPI inflation report for September, revealed that inflation levels were lower than anticipated on a month-over-month (up 0.2% vs 0.3%) and year-over-year basis (up 3.0% vs 3.1%). This was well received by markets, which have remained concerned about rising price trends.
The S&P Global Composite PMI for October marked the end of the week and rose to 54.8, surprising analysts with a higher-than-expected increase from the previous month’s 53.5. This indicates a solid pace of business growth heading into the final quarter of the year.
Strong earnings from major financial institutions helped drive early-week gains, signaling a healthy economy and consumer spending. As earnings season progresses, investors are looking at management commentary for clues on how the government shut down and recent tariffs are affecting corporate outlooks. The S&P 500 closed at another all-time high at 6,791, an increase of 1.91% for the week and up 15.5% YTD.
U.S. Treasury yields were almost unchanged from last week, with the 2-Year Treasury yield finishing at 3.48%, and the 10-Year closing at 3.99%.
For this upcoming week, data will again be limited, but the major event will be the FOMC interest rate decision and press conference, along with the release of Consumer Confidence and Pending Home Sales.
