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Rover’s Weekly Market Brief — 4/5/2019

Indices

DJIA: 26,425.00 (+1.91%)

NASDAQ: 7,939.00 (+2.71%)

S&P 500: 2,893.00 (+2.07%)

Commodities

Gold: 1,295.80 (+0.22%)

Copper: 291.00 (-0.89%)

Crude Oil: 63.28 (+5.22%)

Portfolio Management Added for Stock Rover Free Users

We are pleased to announce that we have added full portfolio management capabilities to Stock Rover for our free users. Read more about it in our latest blog post. [1]

Economy

January’s retail sales [2] were revised upwards from +0.2% to a +0.7% monthly gain, but February’s sales dropped -0.2%. Sporting goods/hobby stores led January’s sales gains at +5.2%, followed by online retail (+4.5%) and building materials (+4.4%), while February’s gains were led by gasoline stations (+1.0%) and online sales (+0.9%). Sales dropped the most in January for motor vehicles (-1.9%) and gasoline stations (-1.2%), and in February for building materials (-4.4%), miscellaneous stores (-1.6%), and electronics (-1.3%). On a yearly basis, sales were up +2.2% overall, with a +10.0% gain for online retailers, +5.9% for health and personal care, and +3.6% for food, but drops of -8.8% for sporting goods/hobby stores, -4.6% for miscellaneous stores, and -3.2% for gasoline stations.

A $4.3 billion drop in civilian aircraft orders was the driving force in a $4.2 billion (-1.6%) overall decrease in durable goods orders [3] for February, with orders excluding transportation up +0.1% for the month. Defense aircraft orders were up $113 million (+2.5%), and excluding all increases in defense spending brought new orders down by -1.9%. Orders for core capital goods, which exclude both transportation and defense, were down -0.1% for the month and only up +2.6% for the year.

The unemployment rate [4] remained at 3.8% as nonfarm payroll employment increased 196,000 in March, and February’s 22,000 increase was revised to 33,000. Employment increased for healthcare (+49,000), professional services (+34,000), food services (+27,000), and construction (+16,000), but decreased for manufacturing (-6,000). Hourly pay gains slowed from +3.4% in February to +3.2% in March, with yearly gains up +3.2% to $27.70/hour overall, and $23.24/hour for nonsupervisory employees. The U6 unemployment rate, which also includes underemployed and discouraged workers, remained at 7.3% vs. 7.9% a year previously, while the workforce participation rate dropped from 63.2% to 63.0%.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Wednesday April 10 – Consumer Price Index

Thursday April 11 – Producer Price Index – Final Demand

Earnings Calendar:

 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Legacy
Housing
(LGH)
[5]
Levi
Strauss
(LEVI)
[6]
Delta Air
Lines
(DAL)
[7]
Commerce
Bancshares
(CBSH)
[8]
JPMorgan
Chase
(JPM)
[9]
PolarityTE
(PTE)
[10]
WD-40
(WDFC)
[11]
MSC Industrial
Direct Co
(MSM)
[12]
Apogee
Enterprises
(APOG)
[13]
Wells
Fargo
(WFC)
[14]