Major stock indices were substantially higher this week as S&P Global’s U.S. services PMI expanded.

Treasury bond yields were mixed with the 30-year bond ending at 3.880% and the 10-Year note at 3.962%.  30-year mortgage rates rose to 6.65%.  Crude oil rose to $79.80 a barrel and natural gas rose to $3.142 per MMBTUs.  The U.S. dollar index rose to 105.25 and gold rose to $1861 an ounce.

• The Eurozone reported that inflation in February was 8.5% from a year earlier, down from 8.6% year over year in January and the peak of 10.6% in October.
  • Excluding volatile food and energy, prices rose from 5.3% in January to 5.6% in February.
  • Services rose 4.8% up from 4.4% in January.
• The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rose 5.8% in the calendar year 2022.
  • In the month of December home prices fell 0.8%.
• S&P Global released its purchasing managers indices for March.  Keep in mind that anything over 50 represents expansion and anything under 50 represents contraction.
  • U.S. manufacturing PMI rose from 46.9 to 47.3.
  • U.S. services PMI rose from 46.8 to 50.6.
  • Canada manufacturing PMI rose from 51.0 to 52.4.
  • Mexico manufacturing PMI rose from 48.9 to 51.0.
  • Eurozone manufacturing PMI fell from 48.8 to 48.5.
  • Eurozone composite PMI rose from 50.3 to 52.0.
  • China manufacturing PMI rose from 49.2 to 51.6.
  • China services PMI rose from 52.9 to 55.0.
  • Japan manufacturing PMI fell from 48.9 to 47.7.
  • Japan service PMI rose from 52.3 to 54.0.
• The Commerce Department reported:
  • Durable goods orders fell 4.5% in January, the largest drop since April 2020.
    • Transportation equipment orders fell 13.3%.
      • Non-defense aircraft and parts orders fell 54.6%.
    • Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were up 0.7%.
    • Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft increased 0.8%.
• The Labor Department reported:
  • Seasonally adjusted first-time claims for unemployment were 190,000 down from 192,000 in the prior week.
• • • The 4-week moving average of claims, designed to smooth out volatility, was 193,000 up from 191,250 in the prior 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/wpsr/wpsrsummary.pdf .  Also, the EIA reported in the prior week:
  • Field production of crude oil was unchanged at 12.3MM BPD.
  • Natural gas storage fell 81BN cubic feet and is above the 5-year average at this time of year.
• Baker Hughes reported the number of active oil rigs fell 8 to 592.  The number of active natural gas rigs rose 3 to 154.
• Factset reported, with 99% of S&P500 companies reporting, that the blended Q4 earnings decline was 4.6%.

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Thank you,

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

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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.