Despite a sharp selloff on Friday, major stock indices ended the holiday shortened week mixed.  The best performing stocks developed international, with modest gains, and a slight decline in the Russell 2000 small cap index.

Treasury bond yields rose with the 30-year bond yield at 4.790% and the 10-Year note at 4.598%.  Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 6.85%.  Crude oil rose to $70.48 a barrel and natural gas fell to $3.75 per MMBTUs.  The U.S. dollar index rose to 107.92 and gold fell to $2,631.40 an ounce.

In economic reports this week:

• The Commerce Department reported:
  • New home sales rose a seasonally adjusted 5.9% in in the month of November and were up 8.7% from a year ago.

• The Labor department reported:
  • Seasonally adjusted first-time claims for unemployment were 219,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week.  
    • The 4-week moving average of claims, designed to smooth out volatility, was 226,500 an increase of 1,000 from the previous week. 
    • 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 13.604MM BPD to 13.585MM BPD.
  • Natural gas storage fell 93BN cubic feet and is at about at its highest level during the past five years at this time of year.
• Baker Hughes reported the number of oil rigs was unchanged at 483 and the number of natural gas rigs was unchanged at 102.

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