125,000 Jobs Added & 1.9% GDP Growth

MBA Housing Applications On the heels of the very strong September pending home sales report, the MBA housing applications report in the week of October 25th showed solid improvement after yearly purchase growth dipped in the previous week. Specifically, the composite index had weekly growth of 0.6% after it fell 11.9%.  Purchase index was up 2%…

Q3 Earnings Growth Is 2.03% With Earnings Season Almost Halfway Done

Small Reversal As Market Gets Ready For Rate Cut The stock market fell slightly on Tuesday which was a reversal from its early morning action. S&P 500 fell 8 basis points. From its morning peak, it fell 0.33% to the close. It was hurt by Alphabet all day which closed down 2.12% after missing EPS…

20 City Index Sees 7 Year Low In Home Price Growth

Redbook Same Store Sales Growth Inches Up In the week of October 26th, the Redbook same store sales growth rate improved from 4.3% to 4.5%. That’s the 2nd straight week where it increased 2 tenths. It’s still not a great reading though as growth was in the 5% to 6% range in August and September. It…

Alphabet & Beyond Meat Sink After Earnings

S&P 500 Finally Hits Record High Monday was an amazing day for stocks. MSCI all country world index was up 0.6%. It’s now up 18.27% year to date. It is only down 2.17% from its record high in January 2018. It’s closing in on that high as investors anticipate a global cyclical recovery. A main…

Chicago Fed National Activity Index Dragged Down By GM Strike

University Of Michigan Consumer Confidence Falls In Final Reading Final October University of Michigan consumer confidence reading fell from the initial reading. But it was still up sequentially. It’s interesting to see such optimism as the weekly Redbook same store sales reports have recently showed a decline in yearly growth. A final determination of how…

S&P 500 Just 3 Points From Its Record

Stocks As Close To Record As Possible Somehow stocks rallied, but still didn’t reach their record high. S&P 500 increased 0.41% to 3,022.55. Record is 3,025.86. Any increase on Monday should break the record. It has been painstaking. For much of the past couple months the S&P 500 has been within a couple percentage points…

New Home Sales Remain Near Cycle High

Weak Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Report Kansas City Fed manufacturing report was worse than the previous 3 regional Fed reports as the current and expectations indexes both fell. Unlike the prior 3 reports, this one has quotes which give us context on the numbers. As you can see from the chart below, the index fell…

Flash Manufacturing PMI at a 6 Month High

Weak Durable Goods September durable goods orders report was terrible. On a monthly basis, new orders growth was -1.1% which missed estimates for -0.7% and fell from August’s 0.3% growth. The chart below beautifully shows the cycle as it is the 12 month rolling average of the 12 month cumulative change in orders. As you…

Twitter & Amazon Report Weak Quarters

Stocks Inch Closer To Record High S&P 500 rallied on Thursday, but didn’t reach a new high. There is very sharp resistance at the record high. S&P 500 was up 19 basis points to 3,010 which is the highest level since July 30th. It is now about 15 and a half points away from the…

Microsoft and Tesla Beat EPS Estimates

Market Rises Slightly On Wednesday Stocks rose slightly on Wednesday as the S&P 500 continues to hover near the 3,000 level which is just below its record high. S&P 500 rose 0.28% to 3,004.52. Even though the action seems boring, the intraday session was interesting. It was the exact opposite of Tuesday as stocks rallied…