Rover's Weekly Market Brief — 1/5/2018

Indices

DJIA: 25,295.90 (+2.33%)

NASDAQ: 7,137.00 (+3.38%)

S&P 500: 2,743.00 (+2.60%)

Commodities

Gold: 1,321.00 (+0.89%)

Copper: 363.30 (-0.50%)

Crude Oil: 61.55 (+1.87%)

Economy

Private residential construction spending increased +1.0% in November, with a -1.3% drop in multifamily construction holding back the contributions from a +1.9% increase in single family home construction. Private nonresidential construction spending rebounded to a +0.9% monthly gain after a -0.3% drop in October, with notable increases for offices (+5.5%) and commercial property (+1.5%), and decreases for power utilities (-1.1%) and manufacturing (-1.6%). Public construction spending was up +0.2%, with positive contributions from educational construction (+3.8%) and recreational facilities (+0.7) being offset by drops in spending for commercial property (-5.7%), health care (-2.4%), public safety (-1.9%), highway construction (-0.8%), and conservation and development (-9.4%). On a yearly basis private construction was up +2.6% and public construction was up1.8%, bringing total construction to a +2.4% yearly gain.

There were 148,000 jobs created in December, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1%, but raising the alternative U-6 measure of total unemployment from 8.0% to 8.1%. The number of jobs created in October was revised downward from +244,000 to +211,000, and November was revised upward from +228,000 to +252,000, for a net downward revision of -9,000 jobs over the two months. Employment increased for health care (+31,000), construction (+30,000), and manufacturing (+25,000), and was little changed in other sectors with the exception of a -27,000 drop in retail general merchandise store employees. Hourly wages rose by $0.09 to $26.63/hr, and have risen $0.65 (2.5%) in the past 12 months.


The trade deficit in goods and services in November increased by +$1.6 billion to $50.5 billion from an upwardly revised $48.9 billion deficit in October. The change in the deficit was due almost entirely to the increase in the goods deficit but was offset slightly by a +$0.2 billion increase in the services surplus. Goods exports increased +$4.4 billion, comprised largely of civilian aircraft (+1.2 billion), automobiles and parts (+1.0 billion), and consumer goods (+0.7 billion). Goods imports outpaced exports with a +$6.0 billion gain, and had notable increases for cell phones and other household goods (+$1.1 billion), crude oil (+$1.1 billion), and semiconductors (+$0.8 billion). On a per country basis, the goods trade deficit rose both with China (+$1.5 billion) and the European Union (+$1.5 billion), but shrunk with South Korea (-$1.0 billion).

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Thursday January 11 – Producer Price Index – Final Demand (PPI-FD)

Friday January 12 – Consumer Price Index

Earnings Calendar:

 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Pigeon
(PGENY)
Ashtead
Group
(ASHTY)
Lennar
(LEN)
Taiwan
Semiconductor
(TSM)
JPMorgan
Chase
(JPM)
Barracuda
Networks
(CUDA)
Acuity
Brands
(AYI)
MSC Industrial
Direct Co
(MSM)
Delta
Air Lines
(DAL)
BlackRock
(BLK)






Top