With the Thanksgiving Holiday tomorrow, today is the last day of the week for the markets. That means we’ll review the latest economic data a little early this week to identify which pockets of the economy are heating up and which are slowing down. Let’s take a look at this week’s big headlines…
Existing Home Sales
Tuesday’s Existing Home Sales report showed stronger-than-expected results for October. The indicator was up 2.0% for a 5.4 million annualized rate. Both single-family and condos resale were up. The price median was down only 0.2% at an actual number of $247,000, giving us a 5.5% year-on-year raise.
Regional sales were way up, led by the Northeast with a 4.2% rise. There was a 1.9% rebound in the South following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. And even though the West was up 2.4% and the Midwest was up 0.8%, there’s still a lot of ground to cover. The annual rate for total sales stands at -0.9%.
Durable Goods Orders
Durable goods were unable to post three straight months of gains. They were down -1.2% in October. There was a 33% reversal in commercial aircraft orders, and a 0.5% decline in core capital goods orders (nondefense ex-aircraft).
However, there were still some positives in today’s report. Ex-transportation was solid, with a 0.4% gain. This reading’s September revision was also positive, going up 0.4 points to 1.1%. But core capital goods had an even larger revision. Offsetting October’s decline, their September numbers were revised up 0.8 points to 2.1%. Shipments of core capital goods were also revised higher. They’re up 0.5 points in September to 1.2%, and October is up 0.4%.
This report may not be the most positive news, but it looks like the factory sector could be contributing to positive Q4 growth.
That’s all I have for you this week. I hope you enjoy your holiday with friends, family, food and football. I’ll be in touch again next week with the latest ratings updates out of Portfolio Grader.
Have a great Thanksgiving,
Louis Navellier