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WEEKLY QUOTE
“We
must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.”
- John F. Kennedy
WEEKLY TIP
Have
you recently become a caregiver, or are you about to become one? It might be
wise to try and estimate the impact of your caregiving duties on your
finances (work hours lost, out-of-pocket expenses incurred).
WEEKLY RIDDLE
Francis
had finished cleaning the windows on his 2-story house when he slipped and
fell off a ladder. He wasn’t injured, however. How come?
Last week’s riddle:
I sleep by day and fly by night, with no feathers to aid my
flight. What am I?
Last week’s answer:
A bat.
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January 27,
2015
A RISE IN HOME BUYING
Existing
home sales were up 2.4% in December and 3.5% for 2014. In its latest report,
the National Association of Realtors noted a median sale price of $208,500,
5.8% above a year before. The sales pace in the last half of 2014 was 8%
better than in the first half, with cheaper mortgages certainly a factor. (Last
week, a 30-year FRM averaged just 3.66% interest.) December saw a 1.9% dip in
building permits, but the Census Bureau also noted a 4.4% boost for housing
starts. Starts for 2014 totaled 1.01 million, a 9-year high. Last year,
groundbreaking increased 8.8%.1,2
ECB FIGHTS DEFLATION RISK WITH STIMULUS
Thursday, the European Central Bank unveiled a plan to
ease: a massive stimulus that will purchase 60 billion euros (about
$69 billion) of bonds per month through September 2016. The tipping point for
the move appeared to be the 0.2% December retreat in the eurozone inflation
rate. All this easing will weaken the euro even more, thereby offering relief
to the export-reliant economies of many eurozone nations.3
NASDAQ GOES POSITIVE YTD; GOLD TOPS
$1,300
Across four days, the tech-heavy benchmark rose 2.68% to
settle Friday at 4,757.88. The S&P 500 ended the week at 2,051.82, the Dow
at 17,672.60; those settlements resulted from 4-day gains of 1.63% for the S&P
and 0.94% for the Dow. Thursday, gold closed above $1,300 on the COMEX for
the first time since August; it settled Friday at $1,292.60, up 1.2% for the
week. A barrel of West Texas crude was valued at just $45.83 at Friday’s
NYMEX close.4,5
THIS WEEK: Monday, investors
react to Greece’s elections and earnings from Microsoft, D.R. Horton and
Texas Instruments. Tuesday, reports on December hard goods orders and new home
sales accompany the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, the latest
S&P/Case-Shiller home price index and earnings from Apple, AT&T, 3M,
American Airlines, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer,
Novartis, Yahoo!, Procter & Gamble, Electronic Arts and Caterpillar. Wednesday,
the Federal Reserve issues a policy statement and earnings arrive from General
Dynamics, Facebook, Qualcomm and St. Jude Medical. NAR’s December pending
home sales report comes out Thursday, as do new initial claims numbers and
earnings from Sherwin-Williams, Stanley Black & Decker, Google, Time
Warner Cable, Unisys, Viacom, Visa, Whirlpool, Wynn Resorts, Abbott Labs,
Amazon.com, Colgate-Palmolive, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical, Harley-Davidson,
Ford Motor Co., Hershey, JetBlue, Northrop Grumman, Occidental Petroleum,
Raytheon, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Royal Dutch Shell. Friday brings the
first estimate of Q4 GDP and the final University of Michigan January
consumer sentiment index.
Sources: online.wsj.com, bigcharts.com, treasury.gov - 1/23/156,7,8,9
Indices
are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be invested into
directly. These returns do not include dividends. 10-year TIPS real yield =
projected return at maturity given expected inflation.
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«RepresentativeDisclosure»
This material was prepared by MarketingPro,
Inc., and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party,
nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed
to be accurate. Please note - investing involves risk, and past performance
is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering
legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed,
the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional.
This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice
and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty.
This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any
investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as
such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular
investment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index of 30
actively traded blue-chip stocks. The NASDAQ Composite Index is an unmanaged,
market-weighted index of all over-the-counter common stocks traded on the
National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System. The
Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities
considered to be representative of the stock market in general. It is not
possible to invest directly in an index. NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE:NYX) operates
two securities exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) and NYSE
Arca (formerly known as the Archipelago Exchange, or ArcaEx®, and the Pacific
Exchange). NYSE Group is a leading provider of securities listing, trading
and market data products and services. The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.
(NYMEX) is the world's largest physical commodity futures exchange and the
preeminent trading forum for energy and precious metals, with trading
conducted through two divisions – the NYMEX Division, home to the energy,
platinum, and palladium markets, and the COMEX Division, on which all other
metals trade. Additional risks are associated with international investing,
such as currency fluctuations, political and economic instability and
differences in accounting standards. This material represents an assessment
of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to
be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results. Past
performance is no guarantee of future results. Investments will fluctuate and when
redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. All
economic and performance data is historical and not indicative of future
results. Market indices discussed are unmanaged. Investors cannot invest in
unmanaged indices. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting
or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is
advised to engage the services of a competent professional.
Citations.
1 - consumeraffairs.com/news/a-strong-finish-for-sales-of-existing-homes-012315.html
[1/23/15]
2 - dailyfinance.com/2015/01/21/new-home-construction-rises-december/
[1/21/15]
3 - latimes.com/business/la-fi-ecb-stimulus-euro-quantitative-easing-20150122-story.html
[1/22/15]
4 - proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/59465/gold-retreats-06-to-1292-wti-down-brent-up-59465.html
[1/23/15]
5 - fxstreet.com/news/forex-news/article.aspx?storyid=4edca382-02d3-4d7b-8766-c764b9def512
[1/23/15]
6 - markets.wsj.com/us [1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=DJIA&closeDate=1%2F23%2F14&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=COMP&closeDate=1%2F23%2F14&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=SPX&closeDate=1%2F23%2F14&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=DJIA&closeDate=1%2F22%2F10&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=COMP&closeDate=1%2F22%2F10&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=SPX&closeDate=1%2F22%2F10&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=DJIA&closeDate=1%2F24%2F05&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=COMP&closeDate=1%2F24%2F05&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
7 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=SPX&closeDate=1%2F24%2F05&x=0&y=0
[1/23/15]
8 - treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=realyield
[1/23/15]
9 - treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=realyieldAll
[1/23/15]
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Economic Update for the week of January 27th, 2015
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