Rover's Weekly Market Brief —8/17/2018

Indices

DJIA: 25,669.30 (+1.41%)

NASDAQ: 7,819.53 (-0.25%)

S&P 500: 2,851.04 (+0.63%)

Commodities

Gold: 1,190.50 (-1.95%)

Copper: 261.65 (-4.59%)

Crude Oil: 65.90 (-2.56%)

Economy

Retail sales, adjusted for seasonal variations but not price changes, were up +0.5% in July, with June’s sales revised downward from +0.5% to +0.2%, and sales increasing +6.4% over the previous 12 months. Compared to the previous month, sales increased the most for restaurants (+1.3%), clothing stores (+1.3%), and department stores (+1.2%), and dropped for hobby stores (-1.7%), furniture stores (-0.5%), and health and personal care stores (-0.4%). On a yearly basis sales decreased only for hobby stores (-4.9%), and increased the most for gasoline stations (+22.2%), restaurants (+9.7%), nonstore (e.g. online) retailers (+8.7%), and clothing stores (+6.4%).

Decreases in mining (-0.3%) and utilities (-0.5%) offset a +0.3% increase in manufacturing to bring industrial production to a +0.1% increase in July, with June’s increase revised upwards from +0.6% to +1.0%. Production increases over the previous 5 months averaged +0.5%, with estimates ranging from a revised +1.2% in April to -0.5% in May, and the rate over the previous 12 months was +4.2%. Within manufacturing, durable goods production was up +0.4%, with increases for computer and electronics products (+1.3%) and motor vehicles (+0.9%), and -0.2% drops each for furniture and miscellaneous goods. Capacity utilization remained steady in July at 78.1%, after a +0.1% upward revision to June, but remains -1.7% below the 1972-2107 average.

Housing starts rose slightly to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.168 million in July, with June’s starts revised downward to 1.158 million (-15,000), echoing concerns cited in the National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index about increasing costs, labor shortages and a lack of buildable lots. In the Northeast, -4.0% (-18.5% Y/Y) fewer units were started, but the number of completed units rose by +65.8% (+18.9% Y/Y), with single family homes only comprising +2.1% of the increase. In the Midwest, housing starts increased by +11.6% (+7.5% Y/Y), and completions rose by +7.6%, with an 11% jump in single family home completions. In the South, construction starts increased +10.4% (+4.1% Y/Y), but completions fell -6.0%, while in the West both construction starts (-19.6%, -10.9% Y/Y) and completed units (-13.3%, +11.8% Y/Y) fell.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Wednesday August 22 – Federal Open Market Committee August Meeting Minutes

Friday August 24 – Durable Goods Orders

Earnings Calendar:

 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
The Estee
Lauder Cos
(EL)
Medtronic
(MDT)
Royal Bank
of Canada
(RY)
Alibaba Group
Holdings
(BABA)
AAC Technologies
Holdings
(AACAY)
Sasol
(SSL)
TJX Companies
(TJX)
Lowe’s
Companies
(LOW)
VMware
(VMW)
Foot
Locker
(FL)






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