Economic data Wednesday, on the surface at least, improved from recent reports. ADP Employment Report improved to 217K new jobs vs 183K expected & prior 186K.
There’s no question many temporary jobs in retail given the season. Productivity rose 2.2% vs 2.2% expected & prior 1.6%. Costs increased as well to 1.8% vs 0.9% & prior 1.4%. Oil Inventories rose to 1.2 million bbls vs prior 1.0 million bbls which caused prices to dropped below $40 temporarily.
Stocks fell heavily initially as crude oil carnage caused stocks to drop. This was followed again as Yellen spoke of the likelihood of interest rate increases. Lastly the ongoing shooting event in San Bernardino added to investor nerves.
Market sectors moving higher included: Brazil (EWZ) and the Dollar (UUP).
Market sectors moving lower included: Everything else.
The top ETF daily market movers by percentage change in volume whether rising or falling is available daily.
Volume increased on selling and breadth per the WSJ was negative.
This wasn’t good day from a variety of views.
My view of markets remains we’re in a topping process. Stocks aren’t cheap from a variety of views. Earnings haven’t been good overall. Economic data, apart from today’s releases, have been weak. The Atlanta Fed just lowered GDP to only 1.3%. So the economy overall isn’t in a lift-off mode as the Fed believes.
The shootings in San Bernardino, if sourced to terrorism, would unsettle most Americans.
Thursday puts Draghi on deck to launch more QE and/or lowered interest rates.
Let’s see what happens.
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