Saturday, April 22, 2017

QUICK OVERVIEW



  • U.S. Real average hourly earnings rose 0.3 % for year ending March 2017

  • CPI rose 2.4 % over the 12 months ending March 2017

  • Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 last week to 244,000.

  • Unemployment rates decline in 274 metropolitan areas over the year ending February 2017

  • Camden and Dallas had highest percent increases in employment for year ended February 2017

  • U.S Producer Price Index for final demand goods increased 4.0% over the year ending March 2017 
  •  One-third of Americans say real estate is best long-term investment.  Residents of the West, men especially confident in real estate Stocks rank second, with strongest support from higher-income adults.

  • U.S. Mar housing starts fell -6.8% to 1.215 million, weaker than expected.

  • Mar building permits rose +3.6% to 1.26 million, stronger than expectations of +2.8%.

  • U.S. Mar manufacturing production unexpectedly fell -0.4%, weaker than expexted, and the biggest decline in 7 months.

  • U.S. Mar industrial production rose +0.5%, as expected.

  • Mar capacity utilization rose +0.4 to 76.1%, as expected..

  • The IMF raised its 2017 global GDP forecast to 3.5% from a Jan estimate of 3.4%.

  • China Retail Sales (Mar) 10.9% YoY vs 9.7% expected, 10.9% prior

  • China Industrial Prod (Mar) 7.6% YoY vs 6.3% expected, 6.0% prior


  • Exhaust cleaning scrubbers will be the cheapest way for larger ships to comply with the 2020 International Maritime Organizations (IMO) 0.5pc sulfur cap on marine fuels, according to BP

  • 4/21/2017,  is  the first time since the lights came on, the UK has gone 24 hours without coal-fired generation..
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Sunday, April 16, 2017

With the close of DJI below 20530 and DJT below 8914 our opinion of Dow Theory is now bearish.

QUICK OVERVIEW



  •  (Reuters) North Korea should halt any plans for nuclear and missile activities "for its own security", a Chinese newspaper said on Wednesday, warning that the United States is making clear it doesn't plan to "co-exist" with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang.
  • Following repeated missile tests that drew international criticism, China banned all imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off the country's most important export product.

  •  Despite rising global tensions and fears of inflation, gold prices have stayed relatively calm. Reminds me of the adage “never sell a quiet market short”.

  • The CME announced on that it is in the final stages of testing a venue for trading spot gold that's based on the blockchain, the distributed-ledger technology that powers the bitcoin network.

  • Gold demand continues to grow, consumption by Turkey, India, China and Russia alone have exceeded world global mine supply since 2013.

  •  Trump says $ is too strong. He’s also considering reappointing Janet Yellen as Fed chair.

  •  (Reuters) Global stocks of corn, wheat, rice and soybeans combined will hit a record 671.1 million tonnes going into the next harvest - the third straight year of historically high surplus, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). That's enough to cover demand from China for about a year.
  •  54% of Canadians surveyed expect housing prices to rise indefinitely, only 4% expect price drop in 1 year

  • (Economist) In America, Chinese investors bought some 29,000 homes in the 12 months to March 2016 with a total value of $27bn, according to the National Association of Realtors.

  •   (AP) " Apple is joining the fiercely competitive race to design self-driving cars, raising the possibility that a company that has already re-shaped culture with its iPhone may try to transform transportation too.

  • Elon Musk plans an electric semi truck for local, regional, and long-haul routes. Also on tap: a pickup truck, a compact crossover, and a next-generation convertible roadster.



 

Sunday, April 09, 2017

QUICK OVERVIEW

  • Republicans voted as a bloc to eliminate the ability of the Senate minority to filibuster Supreme Court nominees - consequence unknown… 
 
  • In a symbolic act, Trump launched missiles at the Shayrat base in Syria – reaction mysterious - consequence unknown… 
 
  • Trump was quoted as saying he is ready to act alone on North Korea if China does not change the current situation … 
 
  • Wall Street's top banks see the Federal Reserve laying out by year-end its plan to scale back its reinvestments in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities in an effort to begin shrinking its $4.5 trillion balance sheet, a Reuters poll showed Friday. A June rate hike probability has risen to 70.6% from last week’s 62.5%. 
 
  • The latest U.S Employment Situation report was a disappointment. Only 98,000 non-farm payrolls were added in March - a far cry from estimates of 180,000. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2%. However the US unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point to 4.5%--the lowest level since May 2007
 
  •  Inventory-to-sales ratio unchanged at 1.28 in February but down from 1.36 in the same period a year ago. 
 
  • Total outstanding U.S consumer credit increased by $15.20 billion in February 
 
  • (Zillow) U.S. renters would need a raise of about $168 a year in 2017 just to keep up with expected rent increases over the next 12 months as rental affordability concerns persist 
  • (Zillow) Nationally, families can expect to spend $447 extra a month moving to a three-bedroom home from one with two bedrooms, according to Zillow. That equates to a 50 % increase in their monthly mortgage payment. 
 
  • The UK’s trade balance widened in February to -£12.46 billion from -£11.98 billion in January.
 
  •  The global steel market will tighten in coming years and eventually go into a deficit in 2020, says research firm BMI. 
 
  •  Fitch Ratings forecasts oil prices to average US$52.50 per barrel in 2017, up from US$45 last year 
 
  • Dry Bulk Ship Values rose by 20% in just 30 days, as demand is growing among ship owners, encouraged by the market’s recovery since the start of 2017. 
 
  •  Japans unemployment rate at 2.8%. Over 10% of the country’s firms admit that some workers frequently put in more than 100 hours of overtime in a month 
 
  • Tim Cook: Without more women, US will lose tech lead…
 
  •  Do vegetarians live longer? Probably, but not because they’re vegetarian  Put more simply, when we crunched the data we found vegetarians did not have a lower risk of early death compared with their meat-eating counterparts. 
   
  • Astronomers have detected an atmosphere around an Earth-like planet beyond our solar system for the first time: the super-Earth planet GJ 1132b in the Southern constellation Vela, at a distance of 39 light-years from Earth