Rover's Weekly Market Brief — 3/15/2019

Indices

DJIA: 25,848.90 (+1.57%)

NASDAQ: 7,689.00 (+3.79%)

S&P 500: 2,822.00 (+2.88%)

Commodities

Gold: 1,301.60 (+0.18%)

Copper: 289.15 (-0.07%)

Crude Oil: 58.42 (+4.19%)

New Video on Comparison Charting

We have added a new video that covers comparison charting within the Stock Rover Charting facility. The video covers the full gamut of comparison charting capabilities in Stock Rover including charting against a wide variety of benchmarks, as well as composite entities such as portfolios, watchlists and screeners.

Economy

December’s retail sales were revised downwards from -1.2% to -1.6% for the steepest drop since 2009, but sales rebounded slightly in January with a +0.2% gain. Compared to December, sales improved for sporting good/hobby/book stores (+4.8%, -6.1% Y/Y), building materials (+3.3%, +8.7% Y/Y), and nonstore (e.g. online) retailers (+2.6%, +7.3% Y/Y). Automotive sales dropped -2.4% in January after a +0.3 gain in December, bringing yearly sales up +0.2%, while dropping prices continued to cut into gasoline sales with a -2.0% drop in January following December’s -5.7% fall, bringing prices down -4.2% Y/Y. On a yearly basis overall sales were up +2.3% in January and +1.6% in December.

Flat service prices lessened the effect of a +0.4% increase in goods prices to bring wholesale inflation up +0.1% in February (+1.9% Y/Y). Over 80% of the increase in goods prices was due to the energy sector, which was itself pulled up by a +3.3% increase in gasoline prices. Food prices were down -0.3%, and removing the volatile food and energy sectors edged core goods prices up by +0.1%. On a yearly basis, food prices were up +1.9%, energy prices were down -6.4%, and core goods prices were up +2.4%. In services a -0.4% drop in trade services and a -1.3% drop in transportation and warehousing offset a +0.3% rise in core services to keep overall service prices unchanged. Yearly service prices were up +2.5%, as a +2.2% increase in core service prices lessened the effect of a +2.6% increase in trade service prices and a +4.5% gain in transportation and warehousing prices.

Industrial production edged up +0.1% in February, and January’s production was revised upwards to -0.4%, bringing yearly industrial production up to +3.5%. Mining production rose +0.3%, matching the previous month’s gain and was up +12.5% for the year, while utility production rose +3.7% after falling the previous two months and was up +9.0% for the year. Manufacturing was down for the second consecutive month at -0.4% in February following a -0.5% drop in January, which brought yearly manufacturing gains up +1.0%. Capacity utilization increased for utilities to 78.6% (+0.7%, -6.6% below long run average), while manufacturing utilization decreased to 75.4% (-0.4%, -2.9% below long run average), and mining utilization dropped to 94.6% (-0.3%, +7.5% above long run average).

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Wednesday March 20 – FOMC Meeting Announcement

Friday March 22 – Existing Home Sales

Earnings Calendar:

 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
HealthEquity
(HQY)
FedEx
(FDX)
Micron
Technology
(MU)
Nike
(NKE)
Destination
XL Group
(DXLG)
AnaptysBio
(ANAB)
HD Supply
Holdings
(HDS)
Southern
Copper
(SCCO)
Darden
Restaurants
(DRI)
Marker
Therapeutics
(MRKR)






Top