Dow was off 4, decliners over advancers 3-2 & NAZ fell 60. The MLP index went down 1 to 111 & the REIT index fell 2+ to the 342s. Junk bond funds declined & Treasuries slid lower in price. Oil climbed over 40 & gold dropped 34 to 1873.
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
| CL=F | Crude Oil | 40.03 | | +0.23 | +0.6% |
| GC=F | Gold | 1,879.20 | -28.40 | -1.5% |
IHS Markit said its composite business activity index slipped to 54.4 in Sep from 54.6 in the previous month. The flash services purchasing managers index inched down to 54.6 from 55 in Aug. The flash manufacturing index rose to 53.5 in Sep from 53.1 in the prior month. This is a 20-month high. Any reading above the 50 neutral mark indicates improving conditions. The flash estimate is typically based on approximately 85%-90% of total survey responses each month. New orders increased for the 2nd straight month. Activity has been helped by acceleration in the pace of new business growth at services providers. The rate of backlog accumulation slowed & firms were able to raise their selling prices at the fastest pace since Oct 2018. Business activity has improved from the steep decline in activity in Q2 during the depths of the pandemic. Manufacturers continue to outperform service providers.
U.S. business activity rises at slightly weaker pace in September, IHS Markit PMI data show
The House of Representatives passed a spending bill that funds the gov thru Dec 11. Dems & the White House struck a deal on farm aid & food assistance for needy families that helped the measure glide thru the lower chamber by a 359-57 margin. The bill is expected to pass the Rep-held Senate & be signed into law by Pres Trump quickly, averting a partial gov shutdown when funding runs out next Thurs. The bill provides $21B in funding for the Community Credit Corporation (CCC), a New Deal-era program that helps stabilize farmers' incomes, which the White House wanted, as well as $8B in nutrition aid for kids & families that Dems sought. As part of the agreement, none of the $21B for the CCC can go to fossil fuel refiners or importers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “preventing funds for farmers from being misused for a Big Oil bailout.” Speaker Pelosi & Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had reached an agreement to avoid a shutdown almost 3 weeks ago, but the specifics of the deal were hammered out just ahead of the House's successful vote. Additional funding for the CCC had been a point of contention in the talks, with Reps insistent that the program needed additional funding, while Dems said that the Agriculture Dept had flexibility to continue payments to farmers.
House Passes Spending Bill to Keep Government Funded Through Dec. 11
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), a Dow stock & Dividend Aristocrat, is moving ahead with a Phase 3 trial of a single-shot dose to treat the virus that causes COVID-19. The company will become the first to test the simpler regimen of its candidate which is being developed by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. While this will be the 4th phase e study of a coronavirus candidate in the US after Moderna (MRNA), Pfizer (PFE) & AstraZeneca (AZN), JNJ is leading with the innovative dosing. The Phase 3 Ensemble study follows "positive interim results" from the company’s Phase 1/2a clinical study, "which demonstrated that the safety profile & immunogenicity after a single vaccination were supportive of further development," JNJ said. The pre-clinical data has already indicated that the company's "SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate generated a strong antibody response & provided protection with a single dose," Dr Paul Stoffels, JNJ's chief scientific officer, said earlier. The pharmaceutical giant will now involve up to 60K adults from diverse backgrounds, including significant representation from those that are over 60 years old, to test the efficacy of the single vaccine dose.
J&J's COVID vaccine enters Phase 3 trial; first to test single-shot regimen
Dow opened up 150, but sellers came in & took it into the red (where the NAZ has been from the start. Work on a new virus is moving forward, but final approval for one (or more) is still weeks or months away. There is little excitement in the stock market today.
Dow Jones Industrials
No comments:
Post a Comment