Dow rose 85, advancers over decliners 5-4 & NAZ declined 35. The MLP index was little changed in the 175s & the REIT index remained steady in the 505s. Junk bond funds drifted lower & Treasuries were sold taking the yield on the 10 Year Treasury up to 1.53%. Oil gained 1 to the 77s & gold dropped 8 to 1802.
AMJ (Alerian MLP index tracking fund)
|
|
American consumers are grappling with the fastest price increase in decades, with the cost of everything from cars to gasoline to food soaring nationwide. And the problem may get worse before it starts to improve. Inflation, as measured by the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge, has climbed to the highest level since 1982. In Nov, the personal consumption expenditures price index jumped to 5.7%, well above the Fed's preferred target of 2%. The data is further evidence of a spike in prices illustrated by a separate measure – the Consumer Price Index – which showed inflation rose by 6.8% in Nov from the previous year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that he still believes consumer prices will fall next year as bottlenecks at supply chains clear up, but he also warned of a growing risk of persistently high prices. The decision to speed up its withdrawal of support, Powell said, stems from a spate of Oct indicators, including rising wages, ½M new jobs & a 0.9% monthly increase in consumer prices. "There’s a real risk now," Powell said, explaining the Fed's decision. "I believe that inflation may be more persistent…the risk of higher inflation becoming entrenched has increased."
Inflation sticking around in 2022
Horrific scenes seen in previous Covid-19 waves are “now history,” according to John Bell, a regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford & the UK gov's life sciences advisor. Bell analyzed data from the UK, where cases are breaking records & hospital admissions are at their highest since Mar. He said that the number of people in ICUs who are vaccinated remains “very, very low.” “The incidence of severe disease and death from this disease [Covid] has basically not changed since we all got vaccinated and that’s really important to remember,” he said. “The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago — intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely — that is now history in my view and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue.” Discussing the new omicron variant, he added: “The disease does appear to be less severe, and many people spend a relatively short time in hospital. They don’t need high-flow oxygen, average length of stay is apparently three days, this is not the same disease as we were seeing a year ago.” A UK gov study said that people are far less likely to be admitted to the hospital with the Covid omicron variant than with the previous delta strain. The UK Health Security Agency said individuals with omicron are estimated to be 31-45% less likely to attend emergency departments compared with those with delta & 50-70% less likely to require admission to a hospital. The analysis is “preliminary and highly uncertain” owing to the small numbers of omicron cases currently in hospitals, but it does tally with similar findings from scientists in South Africa & research teams at Imperial College London & the University of Edinburgh.
Omicron is ‘not the same disease’ as previous Covid variants: Oxford scientist
Treasury yields rose as investors continue to monitor developments on the omicron Covid variant. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note gained 3.8 basis points at 1.519% while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell 4 basis points to 1.942%. Yields move inversely to prices & 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%. The US has recorded more than 4.1M Covid cases this month, according to Johns Hopkins University data. That compares with Nov's tally of 2.54M. The country's 7-day case average tallies at 232K, more than triple the mean from Nov 27. However, investors have been encouraged by some positive news on the omicron Covid variant. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention announced that it was shortening its isolation recommendation for people who test positive to 5 days from 10 if those people do not have symptoms. The US goods trade deficit hit a record in Nov, the Commerce Dept reported. The intl trade deficit was $97.8B in Nov, up $14.6 B from $83.2B in Oct.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rises above 1.5%
Dow Jones Industrials
No comments:
Post a Comment