Dow fell 72 with a little selling into the close, advancers over declines about 3-2 & NAZ gained 18. The MLP index hardly budged in the 199s & the REIT index was off 1 to the 449s. Junk bond funds inched higher & Treasuries were sold. Oil went up in the 73s & gold was even at 1777 (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)
New home sales unexpectedly fell in May as prices climb to record highs. Sales of new single-family homes fell 5.9% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 769K, according to the Census Bureau & Dept of Housing & Urban Development. Last month's reading was revised down by 46K to 817K. The forecast was expecting an increase to 870K in May. New home sales account for about 10% of the housing market. New home construction has in recent months been slowed supply chain challenges which have resulted in higher commodity costs, including lumber. A surge in prices earlier this year added $36K to the cost of building an average sized new home. Surging input costs & the flight out of city centers during the pandemic have worsened the supply shortage although the report showed inventory increased last month to 330K units, the highest since Jul 2019. As supply increased so too did prices. The median sales price rose to a record $374K. A separate report released by the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales also declined in May amid record price growth. The number of contracts closed last month fell 0.9% from Apr to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.8M. The decline in contracts came as the median existing-home price grew at a record 23.6% annual rate to $350K. Prices have posted 111 straight months of year-over-year gains since 2011.
New home sales unexpectedly slide as prices hit record high
Amazon (AMZN) announced the results of its annual Prime Day sale, which ended yesterday, highlighting how the event gave a lift to its 3rd-party sellers. For
the 2nd year, AMZN said merchants' Prime Day sales grew more than
its first-party retail business. Sellers netted $1.9B from
pre-Prime Day promotions that gave customers a $10 discount if they
shopped with small businesses. But the publicity around the Prime Day results was muted compared with
previous years, lacking the sales superlatives it typically offers to
show how consumers flocked to the site to snap up heavily marked-down
goods. AMZN has previously characterized the event as its
“biggest day ever” or the “largest shopping event in Amazon history.” That language was noticeably absent from this year's results, with the
company instead opting to note that Prime Day was the “two biggest days
ever” for merchants. AMZN never discloses total Prime Day sales,
but last year it took the rare step of disclosing that 3rd-party
sellers brought in $3.5B during the event. That figure was also
missing from this year's results. AMZN stock fell 2.
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
Amazon’s Prime Day results were more muted than usual this year
White House chief medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci said the delta variant now accounts for roughly 20% of newly diagnosed cases in the US & will become the dominant Covid strain in the nation in a matter of weeks. “It just exploded in the U.K. It went from a minor variant to now more than 90% of the isolates in the U.K.,” Fauci said. He said the variant has a doubling time of about 2 weeks & currently accounts for 20% of the isolates in the US, which are newly diagnosed infections. “So you would expect, just the doubling time, you know, in several weeks to a month or so it’s going to be quite dominant, that’s the sobering news.” The variant, which first emerged in India, has quickly swept across the globe. World Health Organization officials said that delta has been found in at least 92 countries. Dr Mike Ryan, head of WHO's emergencies programs, said the variant is the fastest & fittest coronavirus strain yet, & it will “pick off” the most vulnerable people, especially in places with low Covid-19 vaccination rates. Fauci called the variant the greatest threat to US efforts to contain the pandemic. He added the current vaccines in the US are effective at protecting most people against the delta & other variants. CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said the delta variant is “hyper” transmissible & she urged people to get vaccinated. Studies suggest it is around 60% more transmissible than the alpha variant that emerged in the UK last fall & was already more contagious than the original strain that emerged from Wuhan, China, in late 2019.
Fauci says delta will be dominant Covid variant in U.S. in weeks
Gold futures climbed, with prices posting their highest settlement in a week, supported by a $ that is receding from roughly 2-month highs. The outlook for gold remains uncertain after a sharp selloff last week & as investors wrestled with the Federal Reserve's view on inflation & the projections for the labor-market rebound from the COVID pandemic. Aug gold rose $6 to settle at $1783 an ounce, after touching an high of $1795. The settlement was the highest for a most-active contract since Jun 16. Yields for the 2-year Treasury yield fell on yesterday to mark the largest one-day drop since Mar 17, while a gauge of the $, the ICE US Dollar Index was little changed, but trading lower for the week — offering support for $-denominated gold prices. Powell on yesterday testified before a House committee, repeating that the central bank expects rising inflationary pressures to prove transitory. The central bank chief also reiterated that policy makers would be patient in raising benchmark interest rates higher from their current range of 0%-0.25%. Gold prices extended their gains, immediately following data that showed IHS Markit US flash manufacturing PMI rose to 62.6 in Jun from 62.1. IHS Markit US flash services PMI, meanwhile, fell to 64.8 in Jun from 70.4. Data from the gov also showed the US current-account deficit rose by $21B to $196B in the first 3 months of this year.
Gold prices climb to highest finish in a week
Oil futures rose with front-month Brent prices settling above the key $75 mark, as US crude supplies declined by nearly 8M barrels to mark their 5th weekly fall in a row. US crude inventories fell by 7.6M barrels last week according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). That marked the 5th consecutive decline reported by the EIA. It also pegged last week's commercial crude oil stocks at a total of 459M barrels, the lowest since Mar 6, 2020. The forecast called for a crude-supply decline of 6.3M barrels for crude stocks, while the American Petroleum Institute reported a 7.2M-barrel decrease. On the first full session as a front-month contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for Aug rose 23¢ to settle at $73.08 a barrel. Aug Brent crude added 38¢ at $75.19 a barrel. Brent, based on the front month, climbed back to the highest settlement since Oct 2018. Sep Brent, the most actively traded contract, climbed 42¢ (0.6%) at $74.50 a barrel. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Okla, storage hub, meanwhile, declined by 1.9M barrels for the week. Total domestic petroleum production moved lower by 100K barrels to 11.1M barrels per day.
Oil prices end higher with U.S. crude inventories down a 5th straight week
Dow Jones Industrials
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