Dow was off 69, decliners ahead of advancers 3-2 & NAZ fell 10. The MLP index stayed in the 254s & the REIT index added 1+ to the 358s. Junk bond funds hardly budged & Treasuries had some buying which reduced yields (more below). Oil slid back pennies in the 75s ahead of big oil meeting in Dubai which begins on Thurs & gold gained 7 to 2010.
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
Treasury yields slipped as markets reopened after Fri's shortened trading day & investors awaited economic data that could affect the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was more than 5 basis points lower at 4.425% & the yield on the 2-year Treasury was last down by 4 basis points at 4.918%. Yields & prices move in opposite directions & 1 basis point equals 0.01%. The Oct personal consumption expenditures price index, due on Thurs, is the central bank's preferred inflation gauge & could indicate whether pressures from higher prices are easing. Today new home sales data for Oct & the Dallas Fed manufacturing index are expected. Investors will be carefully scanning the data for hints about the state of the economy & whether it is cooling as interest rates remain elevated. That comes as markets are broadly expecting the Fed to be done hiking but are uncertain about when rates may be cut. Fed policymakers have so far given little indication about how long rates will remain elevated for. Several central bank officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, are due to make remarks this week. One Fed policy meeting remains on the schedule this year & investors are hoping to gain some clarity on the outlook for interest rates then. Minutes from the Fed's last meeting were released last week & suggested possible rate cuts had not been discussed.
Treasury yields slip to start the week as investors assess state of economy
A new Wall Street Journal/NORC survey released found that only 36% of voters believe the American dream is still a reality. This is a drastic downfall from the 53% who believed in the American Dream in a 2012 edition of the survey & 48% in 2016. Also in the 2023 poll, ½ of voters said that life in the US is worse than it was 50 years ago, approximately 30% of respondents said life is better. In response to the assertion that the "economic and political systems in the country are stacked against people like me," 50% of voters agreed. Approximately 39% of respondents disagreed. The WSJ/NORC survey polled 1163 registered voters. The poll was conducted on Oct 19-24 & has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll is far from the only survey that has found precipitously declining faith in the American Dream & upward mobility in the US. The latest State of the American Family survey released by MassMutual this month found that more than 2 in 5 Americans (42%) believe the American dream is out of reach. That is a 9-point increase relative to 2018 & similar to the survey's findings in 2013, when the US economy was in the midst of a sluggish recovery from the financial crisis. Respondents to the MassMutual survey identified a family's financial security as the top factor defining the American dream – a shift from a decade ago when homeownership & not living paycheck to paycheck were the top priority. US consumer security has been shaken by the ongoing inflation crisis under Pres Biden's administration that began in Jan 2021. When compared to the beginning of the crisis, prices remain up a stunning 17.6%.
American dream is slipping away, voters say in new poll
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) planned to use its role as the host of the biggest & most important annual climate conference as a platform to lobby foreign gov officials for oil & gas deals, according to a cache of internal documents obtained by a not-for-profit investigative journalism organization. The leaked records show that Sultan Al-Jaber, who controversially serves as both COP28 pres designate & chief exec of state oil giant ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), planned to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 countries during the forthcoming climate conference. Al-Jaber was the founding CEO of Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable energy firm Masdar. The documents were published by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR), who worked in collaboration with the BBC. CCR, which has received funding from the likes of Greenpeace & Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, said it was able to verify the accuracy of the leaked documents via an unnamed whistleblower. “The documents referred to in the BBC article are inaccurate and were not used by COP28 in meetings. It is extremely disappointing to see the BBC use unverified documents in their reporting,” a COP28 spokesperson added. The documents purportedly show briefing notes prepared by the UAE's COP28 team for meetings with almost 30 foreign govs ahead of the summit, which starts Thurs & is scheduled to run thru to Dec 12. COP28 is the UNs' upcoming round of global climate talks. The 2-week long summit will be held in Dubai, with scores of world leaders & gov ministers from nearly 200 countries expected to attend, alongside an estimated 70K delegates. It is regarded as a pivotal opportunity to accelerate action to address the climate crisis at a time when global temperatures are hitting record highs & extreme weather events are affecting people worldwide.
UAE reportedly planned to use COP28 climate summit to lobby for oil deals
There was not much news to inspire investors to buy or sell. But more earnings reports are being released today.
Dow Jones Industrials
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