Major stock indices ended the week with losses.  Hot retail and housing start data, along with FED minutes released Wednesday, caused traders to sell stocks in anticipation of further FED rate hikes. 

Treasury bond yields rose with the 30-year bond yield at 4.376% and the 10-Year note at 4.247%.  Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 7.09%.  Crude oil fell to $81.33 a barrel and natural gas fell to $2.570 per MMBTUs.  The U.S. dollar index rose to 103.40 and gold fell to $1918.15 an ounce.

• The U.K. reported consumer prices fell 0.4% in July but were 6.4% higher than a year ago.  This was down from 7.3% year over year in June.
  • Core prices excluding energy, food alcohol and tobacco were also up 6.4% from a year ago.
• The Federal Reserve Reported industrial production rose 1.0% In July following declines in May and June.
  • Manufacturing rose 0.5%.
  • Mining, including oil and gas production, rose 0.5%.
  • Utility production rose 5.4%, due to hot temperatures.
• The Commerce Department reported
  • Advance retail sales rose 0.7% in July after a 0.3% increase in June.  Retail sales are not adjusted for inflation but outpaced it.
    • Auto sales fell but general merchandise sales rose.

• • Housing starts rose 3.9% in July from the revised June level and are up 5.9% from a year ago.
    • Permits, a sign of future housing starts, rose 0.1% and are down 13.0% from a year ago.

• The Labor Department reported:
  • Seasonally adjusted first-time claims for unemployment were 239,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 248,000.
    • The 4-week moving average of claims, designed to smooth out volatility, were 234,250 an increase of 2750 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 rose from 12.6MM BPD to 12.7MM BPD.
  • Natural gas storage rose 35BN cubic feet and is above the 5-year average at this time of year.
• Baker Hughes reported the number of active oil rigs fell 5 to 520.  The number of active natural gas was fell 6 to 117.

Please call us if you have any questions.

Loren C. Rex, CFP^®, MA                                                                      Erik A Smith, AIF®

Founder / Emeritus                                                                            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.

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.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/july2023

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/current/default.htm