Dow surged 765 with profit taking in the last hour, advancers over decliners about 6-1 (a little light relative to the strength in the Dow), & NAZ jumped 239. The MLP index gained 5 to the 206s & the REIT index advanced 6+ to the 365s. Junk bond funds continued in demand & Treasuries were heavily purchased, reducing yields. Oil went up 4 to the 83s on talk of production cuts & gold advanced 32 to 1702.
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
Economic issues like inflation are of top mind for midterm voters a month out from Election Day, giving Reps a slight edge over Dems in a new poll by Monmouth University. For the first time since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturned, a majority of voters polled by Monmouth say they think Reps should take back control of Congress. The poll found 47% of voters want or prefer Reps to control Congress compared with 44% who want or prefer Dems. It's a 4 percentage point gain for Reps, up from 43% in Aug & a 6 percentage point loss for Dems, down from 50% a month ago. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. While Dems care about a variety of issues from climate change to abortion & Reps home in on inflation & immigration, the poll found independent voters are primarily concerned with rising prices. Overall, 82% of Americans ranked inflation as an extremely or very important issue, compared with 56% who ranked abortion as a top worry & 32% who said the coronavirus pandemic was a big concern. More broadly, anxiety about the economy & cost of living supersede concerns about losing fundamental rights or threats to democracy 54% to 38% among all Americans. “Democrats are all over the place when it comes to their key issues. This makes it difficult for the party to create a cohesive messaging strategy to motivate its base. Republicans, on the other hand, just have to hammer away at rising prices and ‘the wolf is at the door’ to get their voters riled up,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “A major problem for Democrats is their base messaging doesn’t hold as much appeal for independents as the GOP issue agenda does.”
Economy, inflation top of mind for midterm voters, giving GOP slight edge in new Monmouth poll
GM (GM) Q3 vehicle sales increased 24% compared to a year ago,
when supply chain issues weighed more heavily on the company’s output. The company sold 555K vehicles from Jul thru Sep, up from about 447K a year earlier,
when sales were depressed due to Malaysia-related supply issues of
semiconductor chips. The increase was in line with or higher than
industry analysts’ expectations of an at least 21.6% increase. Regarding electric vehicles, GM said it plans to increase production of its Chevrolet Bolt EV & EUV
after the vehicles recorded their best quarterly sales ever at 15K
units. GM intends to boost calendar-year production for global markets
from approximately 44K vehicles in 2022 to more than 70K in 2023. The stock rose 2.12.
If you would like to learn more about GM, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/GM?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
General Motors says sales rose 24% in the third quarter
The American economic outlook is crumbling as recession fears grow, but there remains at least one bright spot: The $, which accelerated to a fresh 20-year high this week. Risk
aversion amid growing fears about a global recession has sent investors
fleeing toward the greenback as a safe haven of sorts as the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates at the fastest pace since 1994 in order to curb white-hot inflation. Fed
policymakers have already approved 5 straight interest rate
increases – including 3 back-to-back 75-basis-point hikes – & have
expressed resolve to continue tightening policy until there's clear
evidence that inflation has cooled. The world's reserve currency
has climbed about 7% so far in Q3, after surging 5.7% in H1. But a strong $ comes with a mixed bag of pros & cons. For the first time in 2 decades, the € & $ achieved
parity over the summer, meaning the currencies have a 1:1 exchange
rate. That is good news for Americans traveling to Europe this year,
because they can expect to pay less for things like hotel rooms &
meals while they are overseas. And it's not just the €. The $ has increased in value to a number of other foreign currencies
too, including the £. What's more, the $ has helped US importers that buy goods from
overseas, because purchases are now less expensive. That will likely
boost GDP – the broadest measure of goods &
services produced in the US – in Q3.
The strongest US dollar in 20 years is a double-edged sword
Oil futures climbed sharply,
with US prices up more than 5% as traders bet that the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries & their allies will agree later
this week to cut production on concerns over a slowdown in the economy
that would hurt demand for oil. News reports said the group of
producers (OPEC+) may consider a reduction
of more than 1M barrels per day or more. A production cut would reinforce a message from Saudi Arabia & other key producers that they
are prepared to take action in order to prevent further price
declines. Nov WTI crude
rose $4.14, (5.2%) to settle at $83.63 barrel.
U.S. oil futures gain more than 5% on bets that OPEC+ will agree to cut output
Gold prices also climbed by almost 2%. Dec gold added $30 (1.8%) to settle at $1702 an ounce, the highest since mid-Sep.
This is a day that will be long remembered. However the bigger picture is still unsettled. Preliminary GDP figures for Q3 are coming at month's end & they will probably show the economy continues to be struggling, with limited growth or even another modest decline.
Dow Jones Industrials
No comments:
Post a Comment