Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving
Stocks ended uo on better than expected economic data Wednesday. The Dow added 30.54 points to end at 10,464.25. The SPX gained 4.98 points to end at 1,110.03. We are in the green and looking ok.
Economic news was the main focus Wednesday, although there were very few traders on the session as they all had the day off before Thanksgiving. Jobless claims were a pleasant surprise, falling to a level of 466,000 this past week, pushing the four-week moving average below 500K as well.
This is good news for the holiday shopping season, as did a gain in consumer sentiment from the mid-month reading. The University of Michigan index came in at 67.4, up from 66.0 mid-month, but down from October's figure of 70.6.
Durable goods orders for October fell 0.6 percent, which was well below estimates for growth of 0.5 percent. However, the year on year rate improved to down 11.9 percent from a decline of 18.8 percent last month. Manufacturing was the first to break out of the recession, but data has shown that the recovery is not likely to be a smooth one.
New home sales in October were surprisingly strong, up 6.2 percent to an annualized level of 430,000. This pushed supply down to 6.7 months compared with last year's reading of 11.1 months. Low supply has helped home prices with the median price for a new home up 0.7 percent to $212,200. This economic news pushed the dollar to a 52-week low, which in turn led to minor advances for stocks.
The recent strength we have seen the in the economic data has helped push the Volatility Index ($VIX) down to support near 20. If you were a contrarian investor you might think that with everyone being so bullish it again time to see a fall....
Have a great thanksgiving.
Until next time.
Economic news was the main focus Wednesday, although there were very few traders on the session as they all had the day off before Thanksgiving. Jobless claims were a pleasant surprise, falling to a level of 466,000 this past week, pushing the four-week moving average below 500K as well.
This is good news for the holiday shopping season, as did a gain in consumer sentiment from the mid-month reading. The University of Michigan index came in at 67.4, up from 66.0 mid-month, but down from October's figure of 70.6.
Durable goods orders for October fell 0.6 percent, which was well below estimates for growth of 0.5 percent. However, the year on year rate improved to down 11.9 percent from a decline of 18.8 percent last month. Manufacturing was the first to break out of the recession, but data has shown that the recovery is not likely to be a smooth one.
New home sales in October were surprisingly strong, up 6.2 percent to an annualized level of 430,000. This pushed supply down to 6.7 months compared with last year's reading of 11.1 months. Low supply has helped home prices with the median price for a new home up 0.7 percent to $212,200. This economic news pushed the dollar to a 52-week low, which in turn led to minor advances for stocks.
The recent strength we have seen the in the economic data has helped push the Volatility Index ($VIX) down to support near 20. If you were a contrarian investor you might think that with everyone being so bullish it again time to see a fall....
Have a great thanksgiving.
Until next time.
# posted by Paul @ 5:41 AM 
