Dow dropped 77, decliners over advancers 4-3 & NAZ was off 74. The MLP index drifted lower to the 167s & the REIT index fell 2 to the 407s. Junk bond funds fluctuated & Treasuries were hit with limited selling. Oil jumped 1+ to go over 60 & gold was off 13 to 1731.
AMJ (Alerian MLP index tracking fund)
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The US reported 4.6M vaccine doses administered Sat, a new single-day record, & another 3.6M shots given on Sun. That brings the daily average of doses administered over the past week to 3.1M. At the same time, the country is reporting 70K new coronavirus cases per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, a level in line with the summer 2020 surge when average case counts peaked at 67K in late Jul. No state is recording more daily infections on a per capita basis than Michigan, with daily case counts & hospitalizations nearing the state's prior peaks & Covid-19 deaths there on the rise. Average daily case counts have increased by 5% or more compared to a week ago in 29 states. The US has reported 981 daily Covid-19 deaths on average over the past week. The latest US trend in coronavirus deaths is being obscured by a bulk data release of about 1800 deaths from Oklahoma. These deaths are all currently being reported for Apr 7, despite having occurred in weeks or months prior. The Oklahoma State Dept of Health said that the state is in the process of transitioning to data reporting guidelines in line with Centers for Disease Control & Prevention requirements, which is the cause for this increase. Prior to this reporting anomaly, the daily Covid death toll in the US had been trending downward from the record levels seen in Jan.
U.S. hits daily vaccination record over the weekend as case counts reach summer peaks
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in an interview that the US economy is at an "inflection point" due to widespread vaccinations & strong monetary support. Powell believes the economy will begin to grow "much more quickly" along with job creation. He warned that the greatest risk for the economy is a resurgent COVID-19 outbreak, but added cases across the country have been slowly increasing, which he called "troubling." "It’s going to be smart if people can continue to socially distance and wear masks," he said. Overall, Powell struck an optimistic tone. He pointed to forecasters who predict a GDP growth of up to 7%, which could be the largest increase in 3 decades. Powell noted that roughly 1M jobs were added in Mar when revisions to jobs data in Jan & Feb are included. The unemployment rate fell to 6% from 6.2%. "We would like to see a string of months like that," he continued. "That is certainly in the range of possibility." Still, there are about 8.4M fewer jobs than before the pandemic & he acknowledged that he regularly sees a homeless encampment near the Fed's headquarters in DC. "There’s a lot of suffering out there still," he said. "And I think it’s important that, just as a country, we stay and help those people. The economy that we’re going back to is going to be different from the one that we had."
Powell says COVID-19 remains top risk for economy, but strikes optimistic tone
Senate Reps are warning that Pres Biden's proposed $2.7T infrastructure plan will undermine jobs & ultimately crush taxpayers – the very opposite of what the bill proposes to accomplish. In a memo, senate members chastised this infrastructure plan – or "job-crushing slush fund," as they called it – for spending "just 5% of the $2.7 trillion on roads and bridges." They called the rest of the bill a "wish list of non-infrastructure spending" on failed Obama-era policy proposals & Dem pet projects with no "accountability or transparency." They said the rest of the bill contains "a dog’s breakfast of slush funds," "expensive green energy mandates on Americans," "a ban on the right to work," & a "flurry of tax hikes that will drive companies out of the U.S.," thus supposedly giving China & Russia a say in US tax laws. The GOP Senate estimated that Biden's infrastructure plan would, in the end, eliminate at least 1M jobs in the US. Biden & his team, meanwhile, have performed rhetorical gymnastics to make almost everything in the package sound infrastructure-ish.
GOP warns Biden’s $2.7T infrastructure plan will ultimately crush Americans
Traders are twiddling their thumbs waiting for earnings. Expectations are running very high. Additionally, there is major push-back in DC on the bloated spending package being pushed.
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