Hurricane Helene could cost $34 billion to recover from

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Transcript

00:00I'm Conway Gittins reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

00:03Here's what we're watching on the street today.

00:05Wall Street ended a volatile week on an upswing

00:08thanks to a September hiring surge.

00:10By all accounts, the closely watched employment data

00:13pointed to a labor market that's in good shape.

00:15The report was too strong, though,

00:17to support hopes of another large interest rate cut

00:21by the Federal Reserve.

00:22Attention now turns to consumer and producer prices

00:25in the coming week,

00:26and Pepsi, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo

00:29will kick off the start of earnings season.

00:32In other news, the 2024 hurricane season isn't over yet

00:36and the costs are piling up.

00:38Hurricane Helene could cost the economy

00:40more than $34 billion by herself,

00:43according to Moody's Analytics.

00:45In comparison, the U.S. economy was hit by $93 billion

00:49in weather and climate-related damage

00:51for all of 2023, government statistics show.

00:55Packing winds of 140 miles per hour

00:58and accompanied by flood-inducing rains,

01:00Helene battered the Carolinas, Virginia,

01:03Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida,

01:05resulting in a large swath of property damage.

01:08But getting power back is just the beginning

01:11of a long and costly recovery process.

01:14And to make matters worse,

01:15only 6% of homeowners have flood insurance coverage

01:19of any type.

01:20That means many will be relying

01:22on the Federal Emergency Management Agency

01:24to fill in the gap.

01:26FEMA, however, is running low on funds

01:29and will need a cash infusion from Congress.

01:31With lawmakers not due back to Washington

01:33until after the elections,

01:35repair money is likely to take a long time

01:38to get where it needs to go.

01:40That'll do it for your daily briefing

01:42from the New York Stock Exchange.

01:44I'm Conway Gittins with The Street.