Dow dropped 140, decliners over advancers 3-2 & NAZ retreated 138. Junk bond funds added 1 to the 195s & the REIT index was about even in the 446s. Junk bond funds did little in trading & Treasuries saw limited selling bringing higher yields. Oil rose 1+ to the 93s & gold went up 3 to 1910.
AMJ (Alerian MLP index tracking fund)
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US home improvement chain Lowe's (LOW) lifted its full-year sales & profit forecast, as home improvement retailers benefit from resilient demand for tools & building materials. The surge in spending on do-it-yourself home projects seen during the early stages of the pandemic
has so far held up better than feared even as restrictions ease, while
builders & handymen are upgrading their toolkits to complete a backlog
of delayed projects. Same-store sales rose 5% in Q4 compared
to estimates of a 3.1% increase. LOW also said it expects its annual gross profit margins to be up
slightly from last year, a more optimistic forecast than its outlook in
Dec when it forecast 2022 margins to be roughly flat. Margins
are at top of investors' minds as runaway
inflation & labor costs threaten to dent corp profits. LOW expects fiscal year 2022 total sales of $97-99BB, compared to a previous forecast of $94-97. The company forecast full-year EPS of $13.10-13.60, above its previous outlook of $12.25-13. The stock rose 5.16.
If you would like to learn more about LOW click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/LOW_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f
Lowe's raises full-year forecast as home improvement demand holds steady
Mortgage rates continue to climb, putting a damper on interest in mortgage applications. Demand for applications dropped 13.1% from a week ago, according to the weekly survey from the Mortgage Banker's Association (MBA). "Mortgage applications dropped to their lowest level since December 2019 last week, as mortgage rates continued to inch higher, said Joel Kan, MBA's associate VP of economic & industry forecasting. "The 30-year fixed rate was 4.06%, almost a full percentage point higher than a year ago." Despite rising mortgage rates, those interested in buying a home have been pushing the average loan size to record levels. The average loan size has hovered around $453K during the past couple of weeks. The housing sector has seen rising loan balances as inventory for entry-level buyers remains tight. The Refinance Index decreased 16% from the previous week & was 56% lower than the same week one year ago. "Higher mortgage rates have quickly shut off refinances, with activity down in six of the first seven weeks of 2022," added Kan. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 10% from one week earlier. "Purchase applications, already constrained by elevated sales prices and tight inventory, have also been impacted by these higher rates and declined for the third straight week," said Kan.
Average mortgage loan size holds near record despite higher rates
Russian Pres Vladimir Putin is once again center stage after ordering troops into 2 pro-Russian, breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine & recognizing them as independent states. Western officials & analysts have scoffed at Putin's claim that Russian troops sent into the region will act as "peacekeepers," saying that the latest move could be a precursor to a larger invasion of Ukraine. Political analysts have been predicting that Russia could pull such a move for a while & conflict in the Donbas between separatists, backed by Russia, & Ukrainian troops is nothing new. While there are heightened fears of a potential military conflict in eastern Ukraine, the area has actually been the location of a proxy war between Ukraine & Russia for some time. Soon after Russia"s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, pro-Russian separatists proclaimed 2 republics in the eastern part of the country: the Donetsk People's Republic & the Luhansk People's Republic much to the Ukrainian gov's consternation. Since then, there have been ongoing skirmishes and fighting in the region, which is known as the Donbas, between Ukraine's troops & separatists. Germany & France have tried to broker peace deals between Russia & Ukraine, known as the “Minsk agreements.” Although the fighting in the Donbas has been punctuated by periods of cease-fire, both Ukraine & Russia have accused each other of violating the terms of the deals & fighting has resumed. The armed conflict in the Donbas, often described as “war,” has already had a high human cost, with 13-14K people believed to have been killed. An accurate gauge of the death toll is hard to reach given the civil war-like nature of the conflict. Yesterday, Putin told reporters that the “the Minsk agreements were dead long before yesterday’s [Monday’s] recognition of the people’s republics” & again blamed Kyiv for their failure. Russia has often denied it has backed separatists in eastern Ukraine but has been accused of supplying military hardware to rebels in a bid to undermine Ukraine's gov, sovereignty & political stability. After its invasion and annexation of Crimea, which prompted international sanctions on Russia, Western officials feared Putin's eventual aim was to invade more parts of the country & to install a pro-Russia regime in Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly denied it plans to invade but the recent massing of more than 100K troops along the border with Ukraine, & more soldiers stationed in its ally Belarus for military drills, has only served to strengthen concerns that a full-scale Russian incursion is imminent.
Why is there conflict in east Ukraine and what is Putin's endgame? Here's what you need to know
The Russia-Ukraine conflict remains tense which is driving investors to buy safe haven gold & Treasuries. Dow is down more than 3K YTD.
Dow Jones Industrials
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