Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Dow surges to record on tax reform optimism

Dow shot up 118, decliners ahead of advancers & NAZ slid back 12.  The MLP index added 1+ to the 271s & the REIT index gained 1+ to the 358s.  Junk bond funds crawled higher & Treasuries were a little lower.  Oil dropped to the 57s & gold was off 1 to 1245.

AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)


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The world's largest oil consumer exported more hydrocarbons than ever before in 2017 & shows no signs of slowing down.  Crude oil, gasoline, diesel, propane & even liquefied natural gas -- all were shipped abroad at a record pace.  While the surge comes many years after the shale boom started, it can be traced straight back to the growth of horizontal drilling & fracking.  US exports are poised to expand even further, as the fear of peak oil supply has all but vanished just as a new demand threat emerges in the form of electric vehicles.  Americans are expected to end the year pumping oil out of the ground at rates unseen since the early 1970s.  More & more of it is going overseas, giving OPEC a headache as the group restrains its own output.  Last year the US tested the export waters after a nearly 4-decade-old ban was removed.  But this year, purchases of US light, sweet crude have skyrocketed as pipeline & dock infrastructure was built out & the wider price spread between Brent & West Texas Intermediate crude coaxed more cargoes abroad.  Canada, once the only regular buyer of US crude, finds itself competing with refiners in Europe & Asia.  China's appetite for American oil is voracious: in Apr, China bought more than Canada did for the first time.  Of all the emerging trade flows this year, crude deliveries into Europe & Asia are most surprising.  Brent crude, the European benchmark, has maintained at least a $4 a barrel premium to WTI since mid-Aug, & is $6.31 more expensive today.  If the price of European oil stays suspended into the NY, a good possibility after the Fortes oil pipeline was shut this week to repair a crack -- US exports will continue hold above 1M barrels a day.  The growth of US gasoline & diesel exports was more subtle this year, mostly filling the gaps left as refiners in Latin America weren't up to the task of meeting the region's growing thirst for fuel.  Refiners in the middle of the US were pumping out fuel at a record pace, leaving a surplus of refined products along the Gulf Coast ready to be shipped to eager Latin American buyers, according to the US Energy Information Administration.  Jul was a banner month for American refiners, who processed crude & exported distillate fuel at a record clip & the strong demand from Latin America should continue into 2018.

The U.S. Is Exporting Oil and Gas at a Record Pace

Boeing, a Dow stock, climbed to a fresh record high after hiking its div 20.4%.  The Dow's top performing company boosted its quarterly payout to $1.72 compared to the prior $1.42.  This latest hike means the company has raised its quarterly div more than 250% over the past 5 years & the company has consistently paid divs to shareholders each quarter for more than 75 years.  Additionally, the company announced its new share repurchase program.  BA has repurchased $9.2B worth of its shares from the $14B authorization it approved in Dec 2016.  The new repurchase program replaces the existing one, bringing the total authorization to $18B.  Pres Trump can take some of the credit for ts strong financial position this year.  He has helped the plane maker secure several multi-$B deals from countries including Singapore valued at $13.8B.  In Oct, when the deal was announced, Trump, joined Singapore Airline’s CEO Goh Choon Phong & Kevin McCalister, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, at the White House & noted that the new deal would create 70K US jobs.  Trump also hinted that Greece may too be eyeing some plane buys.  The stock shot up 6.78.
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Boeing flies high: Dividends, plane orders & Trump


The federal gov collected a record amount of tax income for the month of Nov & also had a record level of spending for the month, producing a budget deficit of $138.5B, up slightly from a year ago.  The Nov deficit was 1.4% higher than a year ago, reflecting in part higher spending to deal with disaster relief & also higher spending by the Treasury Dept on interest payments on the national debt.  For the first 2 months of this budget year, the budget deficit totals $201.8B, up 10.6% from the same period a year ago.  The spending increases pushed total outlays in Nov to $347B, a record for the month, while receipts totaled $208B, also a record for Nov.  The rise in revenues compared to a year ago was led by an $11B increase in individual income tax withholding & payroll taxes for Social Security, reflecting more people working as the unemployment rate has fallen to a 17-year low of 4.1%.  The increase in outlays compared to Nov 2016 reflected an increase of $5B in spending by the Dept of Homeland Security, primarily for hurricane disaster relief, & a $9B rise in interest payments on the debt, an increase that reflected higher inflation which boosted outlays by Treasury on its inflation-protected securities.  The Congressional Budget Office in Jun projected that the budget deficit for this budget year, which began on Oct 1, would total $563B  but that forecast did not include lost revenue from the GOP tax cut package, which Reps hope to get passed before Christmas.  The deficit for the 2017 budget year, which ended on Sep 30, totaled $666B.  For the first 2 months of this year, revenues total $444B, up 5.3% from a year ago, while spending totals $646B, an increase of 6.9% from a year ago.

US budget deficit totals $138.5 billion in November


The Dow had another excellent day, taking it within 500 of 25K.  Much of the rise was due to BA.  The rest of the stock market was kind of mushy.  Economic optimism is very high & it is encouraging to see supporting economic data.  However, all will not be well if tax reform dies on the vines.   And the clock is ticking with little time left before Christmas. 

Dow Jones Industrials










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