Thursday's Economic Data Signals a Growing Economy
#economic #growth #housing #emplyment #mega-cap #stocks
Thursday's action drew support from a better-than-expected housing starts and building permits report for December.
The NAS Comp (+0.6%) and S&P 500 (+0.03%) finished at fresh record highs Thursday on the strength in several Mega-caps
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) 136.87, +4.84, or +3.7% was the most influential mover on the day aided by a price-target increase to 152 from 144 at Morgan Stanley.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) 3306.99, +43.61, or +1.3%, and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) 272.87, +5.39, or +2.0%) joined in as the Mega-cap leaders and extended their weekly gainers to between 6-8%.
The iShares US Home Construction ETF (NYSEArcs:ITB) 61.38, +0.90, or +1.5% and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (+1.5%) closed at record highs.
The US Dollar Index (.DXY) declined 0.4% to 90.08. WTI Crude Oil futures declined 0.3%, or 0.16, to 53.12bbl.
US Housing starts increased 5.8% m/m in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.669-M the strongest start since September 2006.
Building permits rose 4.5% M-M to 1.709-M ) the strongest pace since August 2006.
The Key takeaway from the report is the growth was driven entirely by single-unit dwellings.
The Philly Fed Index jumped to 26.5 in January from an upwardly revised 9.1 in December from 8.5.
Thursday, the benchmark US stock market indexes finished at: DJIA -12.37 to 31176.01, NAS Comp +73.67 at 13530.92, S&P 500 +1.22 at 3853.07
Volume: Trade on the NYSE came in at: 890-M/shares exchanged.
HeffX-LTN's overall technical outlook of the major US stock market indexes is Bullish with a Very Bullish bias in here.
Russell 2000 +8.4% YTD
NAS Comp +5.0% YTD
S&P 500 +2.6% YTD
DJIA +1.9% YTD
Looking Ahead: Investors will receive Existing Home Sales for December and the flash IHS Markit Manufacturing and Services PMIs for January Friday.
Have a healthy weekend, Keep the Faith!
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