Global Macro Perspectives
New home sales rose 14.8% in April to 504.000, the consensus was at 425.000, prior reading was at 411.000. The first home-buyer tax credit program expiration again distorted the reading. Chart 1. New Home Sales Source: Blytic.com
Durable good orders rose 2.9% In April vs. 1.5% consensus and 1.3% decrease in March. Transportation taken out the figure was a decrease of 1.0% vs. 2.8% rise in March. Chart 1. U.S. Durable Goods Orders Chart 2. U.S. Durable Goods Orders Ex. Transportation
10 city composite fell -0.4% and 20 composite fell 0.5% in February. Keeping in mind that this is 3 month rolling average. Chart 1. S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 10 Chart 2. S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 20
Consumer Confidence came out at 63.3 vs. 59.0 consensus and 57.9 for April. Large positive surprise. Chart 1. Conference Board Consumer Confidence
The resistance at 1060 (or so) is broken, it looks we will be fast at 900. Chart 1. S&P 500 Weekly
We had 18 more natural gas drilling rigs operating and 6 crude oil operating rigs less for the week ending May 21 in the U.S. Chart 1. Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Change Chart 2. Baker Hughes Weekly U.S. Rig Count Chart 3. Baker Hughes Monthly World Rig Count
Existing home sales rose 7.9% to 5.77 million SAAR. Consensus was at 5.6 million. Again, the first home buyer tax credit expiring. Supply jumped 11.5% to 8.4 months cover. Chart 1. Existing Home Sales
Important U.S. earnings this week: Monday: Campbell Soup (CPB), Donaldson Company (DCI), Quanex Building Products Corporation (NX), Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) Tuesday: AutoZone (AZO), Medtronic (MDT), CB Richard Ellis(CBG), Flowers Foods (FLO), Sanderson Farms (SAFM) Wednesday: Semtech (SMTC), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Toll Brothers (TOL), Jo-Ann Stores (JAS), Brown Shoe (BWS), Dress Barn (DBRN), Fred’s (FRED), […]
Baltic dry index fell 2.2% last week, this time on the back of 10.1% Capesize Index loss. Panamax, Supramax and Handysize Index all recorded gains and outperformed the broader index. We had weaker spot iron ore prices, weaker China steel prices and higher iron ore and thermal coal stockpiles. Capesize activity decreased in the recent […]
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index rose 1.8%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index fell 2.7%. Chart 1. Baltic Tanker Indexes Relative Performance Chart 2. Baltic Tanker Indexes
Did not have time to post on Wednesday, so I’ll do it now. Moody’s/Real National Commercial Property Index declined 0.5% in March and 24.9% YoY. Chart 1. Moody’s/Real National Commercial Property Index Source: Blytic
They should know that the effects don’t last more than a few hours…. Chart 1. EUR/USD Exchange rate & S&P 500
Working gas in storage rose 76 Bcf from previous week. Some signs of increased power generation demand arised, interesting times, maybe a entry point developing. Chart 1. Natural Gas Futures Chart 2. Working Gas in Underground Storage Compared with 5 Year Average Chart 3. Natural Gas Futures Curve
Belisarius is kind of tied up with his day job in the last few days, so my posting is not as timely as usual. Crude oil stocks and derivatives stocks were mostly unchanged for the week ending May 14. Refinery utilization fell from88.4% to 87.9%. Crude oil and petroleum product net imports were fell to […]
Initial jobless claims were reported at 471.000. The consensus was at 440.000, last week reading was at 444.000. An ugly looking number. Chart 1. U.S. Initial Jobless Claims