There was little economic data this week and stock movements were driven mostly by earnings announcements, especially related to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence related stocks. Major indices dropped sharply on Wednesday but rose even more sharply on Thursday. Major stock indices ended the week with gains.
Canada reported inflation of 2.9% in January from a year ago down from 3.4% year over year in December. Also, Canada reported retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in the month of January following a 0.9% increase in December.
Treasury bond yields fell with the 30-year bond yield at 4.3724% and the 10-Year note at 4.255%. Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 6.9%. Crude oil fell to $76.54 a barrel and natural gas rose to $1.70 per MMBTUs. The U.S. dollar index fell to 103.96 and gold rose to $2046.50 an ounce.
* The National Association of Realtors reported existing home sales rose a seasonally adjusted 3.1% in January but are down 1.7% from a year earlier.
* The median price of an existing home sale rose 5.1% from a year ago to $379,100.
* Seasonally adjusted first-time claims for unemployment were 201,000 a decrease from the previous week’s revised level of 213,000.
* The 4-week moving average of claims, designed to smooth out volatility, was 212,250, an decrease of 3,500 from the previous week’s revised level.
* For the full unemployment report go here: https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf .
* The EIA weekly oil report is here: http://ir.eia.gov/wpsr/wpsrsummary.pdf . Also, the EIA reported in the prior week:
* Field production of crude oil was unchanged at 13.3MM BPD.
* Natural gas storage fell 60BN cubic feet and was above the highest level during the past five years at this time of year.
* Baker Hughes reported the number of oil rigs rose 6 to 503 and the number of natural gas rigs fell 1 to 120.
Please call us if you have any questions.
Loren Rex – Emeritus
Erik A Smith, AIF® – President & C.E.O.
These are the opinions of Loren Rex and Erik Smith and are not necessarily those of Cambridge, are for informational purposes only, and should not be construed or acted upon as individualized investment advice. The Indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indexes. The Nasdaq Composite is a stock market index that includes almost all stocks listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange (more than 2500 stocks).
Sources:
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCRFPUS2&f=W
https://ir.eia.gov/ngs/ngs.html
https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
https://www.wsj.com/market-data?mod=nav_top_subsection
https://bakerhughesrigcount.gcs-web.com/na-rig-count
https://www.census.gov/economic-indicators
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/start
https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/housing-statistics/existing-home-sales
