M Notes: Mon, 11-24

LAST WEEK:

Markets:  Questions over AI and Bitcoin caused some Market uncertainty last week.  

S&P roller coaster last week:  Down a lot, Down, Up, Down significantly, and Up a lot.  

Factory orders:   In August, they were up +1.4%.  

Fed Balance Sheet:  $6.555 Trillion. 

Fed Minutes:   No rate increase.  The vote with the FOMC was 10-2.  

Housing:  Existing Home Sales went up +1.2% in October, and were up +1.7% Y/Y.  Data for Housing Starts was still delayed.  

Industrial production:  Still delayed.

Jobless Claims:  The weekly number came in at 220,000.  The four-week average came in at 224,000.

Jobs:  In September, the expectation was for only 50,000 new jobs.  But the number came in at 119,000.  The October jobs number, scheduled to come out November 13th (a week and a half ago), has been cancelled.  The November number release has been moved from December 10th to December 18th.  

National Debt:  $38.034 Trillion.  

Retail Sales:  The numbers were not reported, due to the Government Shutdown.  

Trade Deficit:  In August, the Trade Deficit came in at -$59 Billion.  Exports were up $200 Million, while Imports were down $18.4 Billion.   On an annual basis:  Exports were up +1.9%, while Imports were down -1.9%.   

Unemployment:  In September, the U3 Unemployment rate came in at 4.4%.   

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THIS WEEK:

Focus of the week:  It’s a Holiday week.  Economically, the focus will be on Black Friday.  

Calendar:   PPI, Retail Sales (Tue); Durable Goods Orders, GDP, Jobless Claims, the PCE, and the Fed’s Beige Book (Wed); Markets closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday (Thu); Markets close at 1pm (Fri).  

* The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general.    The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks.  The NASDAQ Composite Index is an unmanaged, market-weighted index of all over-the-counter common stocks traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System.  Yahoo! Finance, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily and Barron’s are several of the sources used for financial information. 

* The National Debt figure comes from usdebtclock.org.   

* Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice and are not intended as investment advice or to predict future performance.  Consult your financial professional before making any investment decision.  You cannot invest directly in an index.   Past performance does not guarantee future results. No strategy can assure a profit or protect against a loss.  Investments in the securities markets involve risk, such as loss of your principal.