DOW + 305 = 17,666
SPX + 29 = 2050
NAS + 51 = 4727
10 YR YLD + .10 = 1.78%
OIL + 2.52 = 52.09
GOLD – 13.70 = 1261.10
SILV + .09 = 17.37
One year ago, the Dow Industrials dropped down to 15,356, which proved to be the low for 2014. Since then, up 16%, mas o menos.
Corelogic reports home prices slipped 0.1% in December, to take the year-on-year rate to 5%. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia are at or within 10% of their peak; current prices in Arizona are still 29.5% below the peak. Colorado (8.4%), Texas (7.8%) and New York (7.6%) saw the fastest growth, while only three states — Maryland (-0.7%), Vermont (-0.9%) and Connecticut (-2.2%) — saw a decline on a year-on-year basis.
New orders for factory-made goods in the U.S. sank 3.4% in December to mark the fifth straight decline. The latest drop suggests that manufacturers may have scaled back production owing to a stronger dollar and weak economic growth overseas that’s made it harder to sell American-made goods. Inventories also declined for the first time in 19 months, down 0.3%. Excluding transportation, new factory orders fell a smaller 2.3%.
Earnings reporting season:
Chipotle Mexican Grill said its fourth-quarter earnings rose 52% as sales benefited from stronger customer traffic, higher menu prices and new stores. It’s tough to keep growing that fast. Chipotle also reiterated its October warning that sales growth may slow during 2015 from the robust gains reported in recent periods. Shares were down in after-hours trade.
United Parcel Service will start applying surcharges for residential packages this year after its costs soared during the recent disappointing holiday season. UPS also reported that fourth-quarter profit fell from a year ago but forecast earnings within the range of estimates.
Walt Disney reported stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue for its December quarter as growth at its media networks and parks and resorts divisions offset a slight drop in revenue from studio entertainment. The bright spot was the animated film “Frozen†which has been a huge hit in merchandise sales. Disney’s record results in recent periods have been spurred by price increases at its domestic theme parks; measles tossed in at no extra charge.
St. Louis Fed Bank President James Bullard, speaking at a conference in Delaware, called for the breakup of big banks. Bullard said the time for restoring the Glass-Steagall Act, which had separated investment banks and commercial banks, had probably passed and was not the best route going forward. But he did advocate for smaller financial institutions, saying the argument that large corporations need large banks was weak.
