Posts Tagged ‘commerce department’

(Michael Schwartz) - Let’s recap some of the good news last week: The Commerce Department said the economy grew in the fourth quarter at its fastest pace in more than six years; The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago said its index of Midwest business activity rose more than expected in January; Consumer sentiment in January as measured by The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers hit its highest level in two years; and Of the 220 companies in the S&P 500 index that have reported fourth quarter earnings, 78% of them exceeded analysts' expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. In a typical quarter, only 61% of companies beat Wall Street targets. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? So, how does the stock market respond?

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(Michael Schwartz) - Two steps forward, one step back might be an appropriate description of the financial markets these days.

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(Lee Siler) - A significant drop in new housing starts has taken stock futures from a mildly higher opening to a slightly lower opening...Wall Street was expecting October new housing starts to improve by 1.7%, but instead saw a deep decline of 10.6%. The Commerce Department said that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000 units is the lowest since April and the percentage drop is the worst since January. Although single family home starts slowed by 6.8%, the biggest hit was from the multi-family starts which tumbled 34.6%.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks look to build on last week's gains, as this week will be packed with economic data. This morning, retail sales came in a little better than expected. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales increased by 1.4% during the month of October. However, if you strip auto and auto parts sales, the number came in less than expected. Ex-auto's, economists had been expecting a jump by 0.4%, but actually came in about half of that number at 0.2%.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks have been struggling all week and barring a great day for the averages, we will be closing down on the week. What's more, the commerce department released the durable goods figures, which were less than economists had expected. Durable goods orders dropped 2.4% in August after increasing a revised 4.8% in July. Wall Street was expecting a gain of 0.5%. Stock futures were pointing to a slightly higher opening, until these numbers were released and are now looking to trade much lower.

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(Lee Siler) - On the surface, this morning's durable goods number looked pretty strong. The Commerce department reported that durable goods jumped 4.9% in July. That was the biggest increase since 2007. However, if you strip out transportation goods the index only rose 0.8% which was below analysts' expectations. The Commerce Department will also be releasing data on July new home sales later today.

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(Lee Siler) - Positive earnings news out of Wal-Mart is being over shadowed by surprisingly negative news in the over-all retail sector. The world's largest retailer reported flat earnings from the previous year, but beat analysts' expectations. Wal-Mart's quarterly profit came in at 88 cents a share versus the 85 cents Wall Street was expecting. Cost cutting measures helped the retail giant achieve higher profit margins as well. What's more, the company raised the lower end of their profit guidance. On the news, Wal-Mart is trading higher in the pre-market.

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(Lee Siler) - As the market continued to lack direction, the Federal Reserve announced that interest rates would be left alone for the foreseeable future. With the economy still at risk of a more significant downturn, monetary policy will remain status quot.

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(Lee Siler) - The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index climbed to 67.9 for May; it hasn’t been this high since before the credit crunch. The index’s consumer expectations gauge was 69.0, up from 63.1 in April.

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(Lee Siler) - The U.S. economy shrunk more than expected, according to the Commerce Department. The U.S. saw economic contraction for the third straight quarter, a run not seen since 1974-1975. Analysts had expected the GDP to be down 4.9%, but the number actually came in down 6.1%.

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