Dow rose 152 (good enough to eke out a new record), advancers just ahead of decliners & NAZ climbed 116 to another record. The MLP index was off chump change in the 198s & the REIT index went up 2 to the 448s. Junk bond funds saw more buying & Treasuries were in strong demand. Oil inched higher in the 99s & gold jumped 12 to 1789 (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)
Ford (F) sales were down 26.9% in Jun compared to last year as the automaker
deals with inventory issues brought on by the semiconductor chip
shortage affecting the industry. Sales of its most profitable F-Series trucks dropped 29.9% even as
overall transaction prices hit a record $48K average across the Ford & Lincoln brands. Ford this week announced temporary closures at 9 plants in Jul & Aug due to the parts supply issues. Sales for H1 are up 4.9% to 996K, placing it 3rd behind General Motors (GM) & Toyota (TM) & ahead of Stellantis (Chrysler), which has 955K across its brands so far in 2021. Deliveries
of its hybrid & electric models increased 117% for the
month & set a ½-year record of 57K vehicles. Ford stock went up 1¢.
If you would like to learn more about Ford, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/F?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Ford sales plummet in June amid chip shortage
Dr Scott Gottlieb said that most Americans should feel comfortable safely gathering over Independence Day weekend, citing high Covid vaccination rates & low virus infection levels in many parts of the country. However, the former Food & Drug Administration commissioner said there are certain places where people should be more careful. “There’s very low prevalence around the country. You have to judge based on where you are,” Gottlieb said. He noted that new daily cases in his home state of Connecticut are small, “so it’s a pretty safe environment right now to be getting together.” “In some parts of the country where you see prevalence rising — Missouri, parts of Nevada, Arkansas, Oklahoma — I think people should exercise more caution,” added Gottlieb. His comments ahead of the Fourth of July weekend come as health officials are closely monitoring the Covid delta variant, which is believed to be considerably more transmissible than dominant strains at earlier points in the pandemic. Coronavirus cases in the country are dramatically lower than their peak in Jan, when the nation recorded over 300K new infections on a single day, but they have been trending upward in recent days, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US is averaging about 13K new Covid cases per day, over the past week, up 9% compared with one week ago. “We don’t want to alarm people, but we follow these numbers really, really carefully,” CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said. Deaths remain in decline. The 7-day average of new Covid deaths is 249, down 19% from one week prior. “There’s sort of isolated parts of the country where you’re seeing infection levels rise. The rest of the country looks very good,” Gottlieb said. “I think what you’re seeing is a decoupling between places with high vaccination rates and places with low vaccination rates. You’re also, quite frankly, seeing a decoupling between cases and the extreme death and disease that this virus was causing.”
Gottlieb says Covid risk low for most Americans over Fourth of July weekend
More than 47M people across the country will embark on
Independence Day travel between Jul 1-5 with travel
estimated to reach pre-pandemic levels, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). Despite rising gas prices, 91% of holiday travel will be by car with
an estimated 43.6M Americans estimated to drive to their
destinations. These numbers are the highest on record for the Fourth of
July & up by 5% compared with the previous record from before the
pandemic hit in 2019. What’s more, 3.5M
people plan to fly, a 164% increase in flight travel. "Travel
is in full swing this summer, as Americans eagerly pursue travel
opportunities they’ve deferred for the last year-and-a-half," Paula
Twidale, senior VP of AAA Travel said,
adding: "We saw strong demand for travel around Memorial Day and the
kick-off of summer, and all indications now point to a busy Independence
Day to follow." And
more cars on the road mean Americans can expect some traffic delays, & for those renting, increased rental car rates at $166 per day. Traffic volumes are slated to increase to
around 15% over normal times during the holiday weekend.
Fourth of July road travel estimated to reach pre-pandemic levels: AAA
Gold futures closed higher for a 3rd straight session, which helped contracts for the precious metal to register a modest weekly advance, amid a retreat in benchmark Treasury yields, which can compete against precious metals for safe-haven demand, as well as a steadying $, which has slipped back since touching a 3-month high a day ago. The $ was down 0.3%, as gauged by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index, while the 10-year Treas was yielding 1.43%. Aug gold traded $6 (0.4%), higher, to settle at $1783 an ounce, representing the highest settlement for the most-active contract since Jun 23. Today's gains also marked its 3rd straight climb, matching its longest string of gains since May 26. Trading in precious metals followed a closely watched report on Jun employment from the Labor Dept, which came in at 850K, better than the 706K jobs that were estimated. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose to 5.9%, compared with 5.8% last month & an expectation for 5.6%. The employment update could help to influence the Federal Reserve's monetary policy plans and spark moves in bullion.
Gold logs 3rd straight price gain and marks longest stretch of advances in 5 weeks
Oil traders stuck to the sidelines today, awaiting the outcome of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries & its allies after a dispute emerged over plans to further ease production curbs through the end of the year. West Texas Intermediate crude for Aug fell 7¢ to close at $75.16 a barrel, leaving the US benchmark with a 1.5% weekly gain. The global benchmark, Sep Brent crude rose 33¢ (0.4%) to finish at $76.17 a barrel. OPEC+ had been scheduled to wrap up proceedings yesterday, with investors expecting the group to agree to a deal backed by Saudi Arabia & Russia that would further unwind previously agreed output curbs by allowing production to rise by 400K barrels a day per month from Aug thru Dec -- putting an additional 2M barrels a day of crude onto the market over the remainder of 2021. An objection by the UAE, however, during a meeting of an OPEC+ advisory panel, forced the delay. According to reports, UAE argued that the production baseline used to determine the size of its production curb should be lifted by using the country's Apr 2020 output of 3.8M barrels a day as the reference versus 3.2M barrels a day in Oct 2018. That would allow UAE to pump more crude. As talks between OPEC+ ministers resumed today, analysts were cautiously optimistic that a deal could be reached. Oil prices showed little change after data from oil-field-services firm Baker Hughes showed the number of US oil rigs rose by 4 from last week to 376.
Oil prices end mixed as OPEC+ struggles to reach deal on production
The 3 popular stocks averages closed at record highs with the Dow heading for 35K. Enjoy America;s Fourth of July!!
Dow Jones Industrials
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