Indices
DJIA: 26,402.30 (+3.02%)
NASDAQ: 7,963.00 (+2.72%)
S&P 500: 2,926.23 (+2.78%)
Commodities
Gold: 1,530.90 (-0.03%)
Copper: 254.35 (+0.53%)
Crude Oil: 53.64 (-0.98%)
ETF Model Portfolios
For those of you that are ETF fans, we recently added seven model ETF portfolios to the library. All of the ETFs used in the portfolio have low fees, are actively traded and have strong Morningstar rankings. Read more about it in our blog post [1].
Economy
New orders for durable goods [2] were up +2.1% in July for the second consecutive monthly gain after June’s +1.8% increase. Civilian aircraft orders drove gains in both months, with a +$3.4 billion gain in July following June’s +$3.6 billion increase, and removing the transportation component brought new orders down to a -0.4% (-$619 million) drop. New orders for core capital goods, which exclude both defense and aircraft orders and serve as a measure of business investment, were up +0.4% for the month. Within core capital goods orders were up for electrical equipment (+1.1%) and computers (+0.2%), but fell for primary metals (-1.0%), fabricated metal products (-0.9%), and machinery (-0.6%).
The second estimate of GDP [3] for Q2 revised the initial estimate [4] downward from 2.1% to 2.0%, dropping from 3.1% in Q1. While consumer spending estimates were increased by +0.4% to a 4.7% gain, this was offset by downward revisions to government spending (revised -0.5% to +4.5%), exports (revised -0.6% to -5.8%), inventories (revised from -$44.3 billion to -$47 billion), and residential investment (revised -1.4% to -2.9%). Inflation adjusted after tax income was adjusted upward by +$2.9 billion to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $14,969.6 billion and the savings rate fell from 8.1% to 8.0%. Pre-tax corporate profits were up +5.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,112.6 billion, with profits up +2.7% compared to Q2 2018.
Personal income [5] rose at the slowest rate since September 2018, gaining +0.1% ($23.9 billion), while consumer spending grew +0.6% to $93.1 billion and the savings rate slowed to 7.7% (-0.3%). Consumer spending on goods grew by +0.9%, with nondurable goods up +1.1% and durable goods up +0.6%, but overall consumer spending was held down to +0.6% by a +0.5% increase in service spending. Prices grew +0.2% for the month, with a -0.4% drop in durable goods pricing somewhat offsetting a +0.5% increase for nondurable goods. Core PCE inflation, which excludes food and energy costs and is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure for inflation, was up +0.2% for the month and remained unchanged from June at a +1.6% yearly rate.
Upcoming Economic Reports:
Wednesday September 4 – International Trade
Friday September 6 – Employment Situation
Earnings Calendar:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor Day: No Earnings Reports [6] |
Coupa Software (COUP) [7] |
Palo-Alto Networks (PANW) [8] |
Zoom Video Communications (ZM) [9] |
Brady (BRC) [10] |
| Health Equity(HQY) [11] |
Slack Technologies (WORK) [12] |
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) [13] |
Urstadt Biddle Properties (UBA) [14] |