Major stock indices ended the holiday shortened week mostly lower, despite gains on Friday.  The Russell 2000 small cap index was the best performing major index at nearly unchanged.  The biggest decline was in the Nasdaq 100.

Treasury bond yields were mixed with the 30-year bond yield at 4.800% and the 10-Year note at 4.581%.  Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 6.91%, the highest since July.  Crude oil rose to $73.97 a barrel and natural gas fell to $2.995 per MMBTUs.  The U.S. dollar index rose to 109.05 and gold rose to $2657 an ounce.

In economic reports this week:

• The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National home price index fell 0.17% in December but was up 3.6% from last December.
• S&P Global released its manufacturing purchasing manager’s indices for December.  Keep in mind that anything over 50 represents expansion and anything under 50 represents contraction.
  • US fell from 49.7 to 49.4.
  • China fell from 51.5 to 50.5.
  • Eurozone fell from 45.2 to 45.1.
  • Canada rose from 52.0 to 52.2.
  • Mexico fell from 49.9 to 49.8.
• The Commerce Department reported:
  • Construction spending was virtually unchanged in the month of November but was up 3.0% from a year earlier. 

• The Labor department reported:
  • Seasonally adjusted first-time claims for unemployment were 211,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised level.  
    • The 4-week moving average of claims, designed to smooth out volatility, was 223,250 a 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/wps91wpsrsummary.pdf .  Also, the EIA reported in the prior week:
  • Field production of crude oil fell from 13.585MM BPD to 13.573MM BPD.

• • Natural gas storage fell 116BN cubic feet and is above its average level during the past five years at this time of year.
• Baker Hughes reported the number of oil rigs fell 1 to 482 and the number of natural gas rose 1 to 103.

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.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/current/

https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product

https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/housing-statistics/existing-home-sales

https://www.bea.gov/news/2024/personal-income-and-outlays-november-2024