Opening Market Commentary For 05-16-2013
Interesting session so far this morning. The premarkets were down early on with the small caps edging up.
The markets opened flat and mixed with the DOW and $SPX falling and the small caps setting new inter-year highs. The large caps reversed themselves moving up to just above yesterday’s closing and then fell close to the morning lows. Sea-saw day ahead along with more of the ‘not so good’ financial reporting from this morning. Volumes started out low to somewhat moderate with a big splash of profit taking then easing down to the low levels once again.
The good news and the bad news.
U.S. housing starts dropped 16.5% in April from March to an annualized 853,000-unit rate. Permits for the month increased 14.3% to an annualized rate of 1,017,000 units, the highest since June 2008.
The Labor Department reports new claims for unemployment benefits increased to 360,000 last week from an upwardly-revised 328,000 the week prior. Claims were expected to rise to 330,000 from an initially-reported 323,000.
Prices at the consumer level slid 0.4% in April from March, a steeper drop than the 0.2% economists expected, as energy prices plummeted. Excluding the food and energy components, prices rose 0.1%, slightly less than the 0.2% gain expected.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s regional manufacturing gauge fell to -5.2 in May from 1.3 in April, far lower than expectations of 2.4. Readings below 0 suggest the manufacturing sector in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region is contracting.
In today’s ‘not so good’ reporting, the first column is what was reported. The second column is what was expected and the third is the last report.
The DOW at 10:30 is at 15271 down 4 or -0.03%.
The SP500 is at 1657 down 2 or -0.10%.
SPY is at 166.00 down 0.13 or -0.08%.
The $RUT is at 987.05 down 1.48 or -0.15%.
NASDAQ is at 3476 up 5 or 0.15%.
NASDAQ 100 is at 3009 up 7 or 0.24%.
The longer trend is up, the past months trend is bullish, the past 5 sessions have been bullish and the current bias is bullish.
WTI oil is trading between 93.28 and 94.89 today. The session bias is bullish and is currently trading up at 94.65.
More Widening For The Brent/WTI Spread ahead?
Brent crude is trading between 102.74 and 103.99 today. The session bias is bearish and is currently trading down at 103.28.
Gold rose from 1368.16 earlier to 1395.40 and is currently trading up at 1386.25.
Here’s why copper has lost its indicator role
Dr. Copper is at 3.275 rose from 3.232 earlier.
The US dollar is trading between 84.12 and 83.64 and is currently trading down at 83.64, the bias is currently bearish.
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Written by Gary
