Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Economic Journal - Tuesday, 1/19/2016



(As of 7am PST)
 
The markets are poised for a bounce back after the holiday weekend and after the worst 10 session start to a year ever. In early trading this morning, both the Dow and S&P500 are pushing gains of close to 1%. Don’t get too excited however, because if the past few sessions are any indication, it’s not the opening that matters but how the market closes. Early gains have generally disappeared in this recent downturn. The catalyst for today’s optimism could mostly be that investors are looking for a bounce back from oversold conditions. There was some economic news out of China that wasn’t overwhelmingly positive but the response has been favorable. GDP growth, industrial production and retail sales were all lower than previous periods but not any worse from a slowdown standpoint. That news combined with rumors of potential stimulus from policy makers pushed the Asian markets into positive territory overnight. Here in the U.S., earnings reports from a couple of big players were all better than expected. Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and UnitedHealth Group all topped analysts’ earnings expectations. Oil continues its trek downward due to oversupply concerns and is currently trading south of $30 per barrel. There is very little economic reporting due out today with the NAHB Housing Market Index due out in a few minutes.

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