The Asian markets were down, HK -2.12%, Shanghai 1.65% and Japan 1.94%. China was by data. There were numerous reports. The GDP was 5.3% from 5.2%. IP was up 4.5% from 7% in February. Retail Sales were 3.1% from 5.5%. Fixed Asset Investments got better, 4.5 from 4.2. Finally, home rices fell 2.2% and Property Sales declined 25%, ugh.
European markets were down, Euro STOXX -1.35% and DAX -1.4%. An EU economic sentiment survey came in at 42.9 from 31.7 !!!!
In the U S, Housing Starts declined to 1.321 million from 1,549. Last month was well above expected. It looks like it borrowed from March. Permits were 1,458 million from 1.523 million.
The market opened at 5.063. The day vacillated between between 5,045 and a surge to 5,080. A late drop closed the day at 5.041.
It was a wandering day. The good news is that it held up on tries to go down. The news was neutral from Israel.
Later in the day Powell decided to make comments on the outlook at a Canadian celebration..It was a different Powell. He said the recent data did nor give confidence enough to consider rate cuts. He left out that there would be cuts this year. Earlier Vice Chair Jefferson gave a talk with the same wording. It looks like Powell is coming to the consensus???
The news was mixed with an unusual Housing Report and a surprise good report from the beleaguered UNH, +5% rebound.
The DJIA ended 0.17% higher. The NASDAQ slipped 0.12% and the QQQ was up 0.001% !!! The IWM fell 0.38%
WTI is still in limbo,$ -0.05 to 85.35. Everyone is waiting to see what Israel is going to do.
The XOP declined 0.8% and the XLE 1.6%.
The 10 yr T bond rate drifted with an upward bias, closing +4.8 bps to 4.676%. The steadily rising 10 yr is taking a toll. The KBWB lost 1.6%. The XLU was -1.3%.
The VIX declined 4.5% to 18.40. The declines led, the NYSE 1.8 to 1 and the NASDAQ 1.9 to 1. The volume was just above average.
The market has become extremely oversold with poor breadth in the small caps.See below.
This should help the market hold up.and any good news could get a rally going??
Blub, blub
Jerry