Originally published by Chamber of Merchants
The economic numbers came through last night and they were pretty mixed:
U.S Economic Indicators
These figures above can be seen as good or bad, depending on the lens you’re looking through.
But instead of having me discuss the numbers in detail. Let’s rather look at how the stock market is interpreting the situation:
S & P 500
NASDAQ Chart
Both the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are starting to see funds getting pulled with the market becoming less impressed by the prospect of a rate hike given earnings season and the mixed bag of weak and ok economics signals.
The Stock Market Doesn’t Like it
The data says that there are mixed results in employment. Productivity in the economy isn’t great so economic growth is in doubt. But what’s this? Pending House Sales have changed from -2.5 to 1.5%.
So the economy isn’t doing great, consumer confidence is very poor, yet house prices and house sales are increasing?
I’ll leave that for the weekend report. (maybe the near zero interest rate has something to do with it? Big Short, anyone?)
Gold, meanwhile, is holding up around $1267- $1272, even though the Dollar is bordering on 99 in the US Dollar Index.
Gold 28th October 2016
The stronger U.S Dollar has pushed the Australian Dollar down to .7591. So I’m expecting commodities and miners to respond positively today.
Conclusion
I’ll release another Perspective. chart soon, so check that out later today.
The Weekend Report will be interesting and at some stage today or the weekend I’ll provide some insight into researching a stock as mentioned in the beginning of the week. (Note: I have checked it out and it’s not something I’ll be moving into yet.)
Ultimately, I see gold inching up as a hedge while the market starts pricing in an interest rate hike for what’s left in this year. I’ll save it for the weekend report.
When the market starts to bleed red, Gold begins to glow.
Stay tuned.