This blog gives investors more financial information for very smart investing!
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Markets pause after setting new records
Dow gained 24 (good enough for a new record), decliners a little ahead of advancers & NAZ slid back 17. The MLP index fell 3+ to 320 & the REIT index added 1+ to the 371s, yet a new record high. Junk bond funds were mixed & Treasuries rallied. Oil dropped almost 2 (see below) & gold went up, near recent highs.
Oil tumbled after a gov report showed US fuel inventories unexpectedly grew, adding to concerns about oversupply. Gasoline
supplies rose 1.21M barrels in the latest week, Energy
Information Administration data showed. Analysts had forecast a drop of 1M barrels. Demand
for the motor fuel fell during the week that included the Independence
Day holiday, usually a peak consumption period, as output increased.
Oil has traded
between $44 and $51 a barrel in the last month after almost doubling
from a 12-year low in Feb amid a spate of supply disruptions &
falling US output. The rate of decline in non-OPEC supply will slow
next year, OPEC said. West
Texas Intermediate crude for Aug delivery fell $2.06 (4.4%) to $44.74 a barrel at midday. Futures increased 4.6% on yesterday, the biggest one-day
gain since Apr 8. US gasoline
demand dropped 0.9% to 9.67M barrels a day last week as
refiners produced 10.2M barrels a day of gasoline a day. US crude
supplies fell 2.55M barrels to 521.8M last week, EIA data
showed. However, inventories remain at the highest seasonal level in at least a
decade. Analysts had forecast a 3M barrel
decline. The American Petroleum Institute said
stockpiles climbed 2.2M barrels last week.
The US economy expanded at a modest pace since mid-May amid
“slight” price pressures & some softening in consumer spending, a
report from the Federal Reserve showed. “The
outlook was generally positive across broad segments of the economy
including retail sales, manufacturing & real estate,” according to
the Fed's latest Beige Book. “Districts reporting on overall growth
expect it to remain modest.”
The
Fed next meets Jul 26-27 & investors see a less
than 5% probability of a rate increase at that meeting as officials weigh global
risks after the UK voted June 23 to leave the EU. Fed officials are
weighing progress on their mandate for maximum employment & hope that
higher wages will feed thru into an uptick in inflation as the
economy advances. “Labor market conditions
remained stable as employment continued to grow modestly since the
previous report and wage pressures remained modest to moderate,” the Fed
said. Several districts reported “strong demand for skilled labor” &
businesses faced challenges in filling positions in information
technology, biotechnology & health care services.
Amazon is calling this year's Prime Day "the biggest day ever,"
with customer orders in the US exceeding last year's Prime Day by
more than 50%, & customer orders globally exceeding 2015 by more than
60%. The e-commerce retailer said it was also
the biggest day ever for Amazon devices. The Fire TV Stick sold 2.5X over last year, making it the best-selling Amazon device. More
than 90K televisions were purchased, members purchased more than
23K iRobot Roomba vacuums & more than 1M customers used
the Amazon app for the first time. But the stock lost 5.58. If you would like to learn more about AMZN, click on this link: club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/AMZN?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Stocks did not do much, this was a time to assess recent gains. Maybe some are noticing there has been limited good news supporting the latest run in stock prices. Since Jun 27, Dow is up more than 1.2K. That qualifies as a staggering advance with only the jobs report on Fri supporting it. And jobs reports vary, it will not be repeated for some time. The market is vastly overbought.
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](http://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.008149261585585044)
No comments:
Post a Comment