Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Economic Journal - Tuesday, 7/30/2013

(As of 7:13 am PST)
 
Markets are rebounding from yesterday’s losses as corporate outlooks improve.  Corporate earnings continue to roll in with several companies, including Aetna, raising their 2013 outlooks today.  Economic reports also bolstered stock prices early with the Case/Shiller 20-city composite index rising 2.4% in May, bringing the year-over-year gain on the US home prices gauge to a 12.2% increase.  Stocks maintained their gains despite a decrease in consumer confidence in July.  The index that measures confidence among consumers fell from 82.1 in June to 80.3 in July.  Most Asian markets rebounded today as well.   Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.5% on a weakened yen, snapping a 4-day losing streak for the index.  Chinese stocks were also higher.  European trade has been choppy on the day as mixed earnings downplayed an upbeat consumer confidence report out of Germany.  Commodities are down with oil continuing to decline to under $104 per barrel and gold is off by $10 per oz.  Interest rates are also down with the 10 yr. treasury yield at 2.58%.  Investors are looking to tomorrow’s Fed statement on interest rates as the key event of the week.  Speculation on when the Fed will taper its bond purchases remains the central question of the market.

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