Q1 2014 in Review

The first quarter of 2014 was closed out on March 31 by remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who told a Chicago audience that “considerable” slack still exists in the job market and further monetary stimulus could be effective.

Click here to view the gallery

As reported in this Reuters story, Yellen said the “recovery still feels like a recession to many Americans, and it also looks that way in some economic statistics.”

Four days later, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7% in March, as compared to February. It was 6.6% in January.

Under the Fed’s stimulus program, it has effectively printed some $3 trillion since the 2007-2009 recession. It has kept interest rates near zero for more than five years and in March said it will keep them there for a considerable time even after it ends its bond-buying program, which is to be wound down later this year.

The first quarter also was marked by brutal weather, which hit many sectors of the economy, including transportation. As reported in this Reuters story, the U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly widened in February as exports hit a five-month low, suggesting first-quarter growth could be much weaker than initially anticipated.

RBS slashed its first-quarter GDP estimate to an annualized rate of 0.6% from 1.2%. Barclays and Morgan Stanley cut their estimates by three-tenths to a 1.9% and 1.2% rate, respectively. As a comparison, in the fourth quarter of 2013, the economy grew at a 2.6% pace.

Political turmoil in Ukraine and responses by Russia and the U.S. continued to dominate the headlines. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked time, ending the quarter at 16,457.66, down 0.7% from its 2013 close of 16,576.66. The price of gold rose, however, to $1,291.75 per ounce from $1,204.50 at the end of 2013.

If the major indices were flat, the IPO market was red hot. Venture-capital backed companies held 36 initial public offerings in the first quarter, more than any quarter for at least five years, Reuters reported.

The IPOs raised $3.27 billion, more than four times the amount in the first quarter of 2013, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

Receive stories like this to your inbox as they are published. Subscribe here and follow us @Alpha_Now on Twitter. If you are looking to access Thomson Reuters data or analytics, register for a free trial.