Rover's Weekly Market Brief — 11/17/2017

November 17, 2017 Printer Friendly Printer Friendly

Indices

DJIA: 23,358.20 (-0.27%)

NASDAQ: 6,783.00 (+0.47%)

S&P 500: 2,579.00 (-0.13%)

Commodities

Gold: 1,294.30 (+1.58%)

Copper: 304.80 (-0.91%)

Crude Oil: 56.59 (-0.26%)

Economy

Consumer prices dropped for gasoline by -2.4% in October, helping to keep the consumer price index (CPI) down to a +0.1% rise. The food component of the index remained unchanged for the second month in a row, while the energy component decreased -1.0% after increasing in August and September. Core CPI inflation, which excludes food and energy, was up +0.2% after a +0.1% September increase, with prices rising for shelter (+0.3%), medical care (+0.3%), cell phone services (+0.4%), and lodging away from home (+1.6%). Prices for used vehicles increased by +0.7% after nine consecutive months of declines, but prices for new cars fell -0.2%, continuing declines from October. On a yearly basis, core CPI increased from +1.7% to +1.8%, closing in on the Fed’s +2.0% target.

The final demand producer price index (PPI) rose by an unexpectedly strong +0.4%, with the services component up +0.5% and the goods component up +0.3%, bringing unadjusted yearly PPI up by +2.8% for the largest increase since February 2012. Almost half of the services gain was due to a +24.9% jump in margins for fuel and lubricants retailing. For goods, fuel prices dropped -4.6% after September’s hurricane related spike, but this was more than offset by a +2.1% increase in pharmaceutical preparations and a +0.5% increase for foods. Removing the volatile food, energy and trade services components lowers core PPI to +0.2%, the same rate as September, but increases the yearly rate by +0.2% to +2.3%.

Industrial production also rose by a stronger than expected +0.9%, with the manufacturing component revised upward to +0.4% for September and +1.3% growth in October. The Federal Reserve attributed a -1.3% drop in mining output to drops in oil and gas production to Hurricane Nate, and categorized October’s overall boost in productivity as a return to normal operations after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma suppressed activity in August and September; excluding the effects of the hurricanes, they estimated overall output increased +0.3%, and manufacturing increased +0.2%. Manufacturing capacity utilization was up +2.0% to 76.4%, and the largest increases in manufacturing output were for chemicals (+5.8%), petroleum and coal products (+4.0%), textile and product mills (+1.6%), apparel (+1.3%), and motor vehicles (+1.0%), with a significant drop only for plastics and rubber products (-0.9%). On a yearly basis, overall industrial production grew +2.9%, manufacturing grew +2.5%, mining increased +6.4%, and utilities were up +0.9%.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Wednesday November 22 – Durable Goods Orders

Wednesday November 22 – Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Minutes

Earnings Calendar:

 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Intuit
(INTU)
Medtronic
(MDT)
Deere
(DE)
Gazprom Neft
(GZPFY)
National Bank
of Greece
(NBGGY)
Agilent
Technologies
(A)
Salesforce.com
(CRM)
Munchener
(MURGY)
thyssenkrupp
(TKAMY)
Petrobras
Argentina
(PZE)






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