Dow edged up 27, decliners slightly ahead of advancers & NAZ went up 69 (both at new records). The MLP index went up 2 to 153 & the REIT index slid back 1+ to the 389s. Junk bond funds crawled higher & Treasuries continued to be sold. Oil gained 1+ to the 59s & gold was off 7 to 1819 (more on both below).
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
A House committee approved a proposal to give airlines another $14B in payroll assistance as part of a broader COVID-19 relief package that is working its way thru Congress. It would be the 3rd round of support for the pandemic-hit industry. American Airlines (AAL) & United Airlines (UAL) have warned of some 27K furloughs without an extension of the current package that expires on Apr 1. The
House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on a 29-24 vote
approved the $14B for airlines & $1B for contractors to
cover payroll thru Sep. The funds will be included in the
$1.9T COVID-19 relief bill proposed by Pres Biden,
whose initial plan did not include new money for airlines. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi said that she expects lawmakers to complete
legislation based on the bill by the end of Feb.
US House committee approves another $14B for pandemic-hit airlines
Interest in 7-figure homes reached a record high in Jan despite the virus-related economic downturn, according to a recent report. More than 10% of home searches on the platform nationwide were filtered for homes with a starting price of at least $1M, a slight uptick from 8.5% reported a year ago, the real estate brokerage firm Redfin reported. Redfin said low mortgage rates and quickly rising home values during the past year have only helped persuade a "record share of homebuyers" into looking for homes priced over $1M. Luxury home sales soared 61% in the 3 months ending Nov 30, which is the biggest jump reported since at least 2013. "In the past, anything over $1.5 million would stay on the market for several weeks, but that's not the case anymore," Seattle Redfin agent Bliss Ong said. "Even in the $2 million range, homes are selling within the first week." Not only are wealthy individuals able to foot the cost of moving, but they have bigger budgets to do it, according to Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. "Wealthy people are reaping the benefits of unequal recovery from the pandemic-driven recession as they earn money from robust stock portfolios and rising real estate values," Fairweather said. However, the report indicated how the K-shaped economic recovery is "unequally benefiting affluent Americans." By contrast, "many lower-income people, particularly those in the service industry, are struggling financially and aren't in the market for homes," Fairweather added. About 36% of home searches in Jan were filtered exclusively for homes priced under $500K, which is down from 39.3% a year earlier.
US homebuyer interest in $1M homes hits record
Gold futures settled lower, pressured by strength in Treasury yields, but prices still registered their first weekly gain in 3 weeks. Gold for Apr delivery fell $3 to settle at $1823 an ounce, following a 0.9% slide in the prior session. Yesterday, prices notched their highest settlement since Feb 1. For the week, gold maintained a gain of around 0.6%, which was its first weekly climb since the week ended Jan. 22.
Gold settles lower, but registers its first weekly gain in 3 weeks
The US vaccine program will enter a new phase when the federal gov starts to deliver doses directly to drugstore chains & pharmacies, in an effort to get more jabs into arms as new variants of the virus continue to spread. The program involves 21 national pharmacy partners and independent pharmacy networks, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The initial plan is to send a M doses to 1500 pharmacies, White House officials said. The program is expected to greatly expand the number of sites that offer vaccines & speed up the overall program. Pres Biden said that the US will have enough supply of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans. The US is on pace to exceed Biden's goal of administering 100M vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office. The CDC's vaccine tracker is showing that 46M doses had been administered & 68M doses had been delivered to states. “That’s just the floor,” Biden said. “Our end goal is beating COVID-19.” The US added another 106K new infections of COVID yesterday, exceeding 100K for the first time this week. Cases are trending downward, however. The US averaged 102K new cases a day in the last week, down 36% from 2 weeks ago. Fatalities remain at high levels, with at least 3878 patients dying yesterday, although they are also falling. “Nationally, all signs point to continued rapid easing of the pandemic’s deadly winter surge,” the COVID Tracking Project wrote in its weekly update. “Cases are down 23 percent from the previous week and down 57 percent from the country’s all-time peak in early January when the US recorded 1.7 million new cases in a single week.” “Hospitalization numbers confirm this rapid decline: There are about 77,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the US as of February 10, down 42 percent from the country’s January 6 record of about 132,000 people. Reported deaths dropped for the second week in a row, with 19,266 deaths reported this week—almost 10% fewer than were reported in the previous week,” said the update.
U.S. COVID vaccine program enters new phase as feds deliver jabs directly to drugstore chains
Oil futures got a boost from rising tensions between the Iran-backed Houthis rebels & Saudi Arabia, prompting prices for global benchmark crude to tally a gain of more than 5% for the week. The Houthis' military spokesman tweeted that the Houthis’ air force hit an airport and air base in Saudi Arabia with drones. Also a report said that the Biden administration revoked the State Dept's terrorist designations of the Houthi rebels. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for Mar tacked on $1.23 (2.1%) to settle at $59.47 a barrel, for a 4.6% weekly rise & WTI settled at its highest since Jan 9 of last year. Apr Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose $1.29 (2.1%) to end at $62.43 a barrel leaving it up 5.2% for the week. WTI snapped an 8 day winning streak yesterday, while Brent ended a 9-day run of gains after OPEC trimmed its forecast for 2021 oil-demand growth in its monthly report. Prices yesterday ended the longest streak of gains in more than 2 years after OPEC, the Intl Energy Agency & the Energy Information Administration lowered their forecasts for oil demand in monthly reports released this week. Analysts said optimism over prospects for a broader reopening of the global economy remains a source of underlying support. On the supply side, meanwhile, OPEC & its allies (OPEC+) have stuck closely to output curbs, enhanced by Saudi Arabia's decision to unilaterally cut production by 1M barrels a day in Feb & Mar. The oil rally, however, could make for thornier discussions among producers in coming months amid fears that outside producers, including US shale operators, will boost production & potentially take away market share.
Oil ends higher on Middle East tensions, with global prices up over 5% for the week
Dow Jones Industrials
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