The markets were… Boring last week. Yeah, I said it, but is this good news?
Monday S&P 500 0.28% | NASDAQ 0.14%
S&P manufacturing data expected to Soften for September, while services data remains strong. It is worth noting that Services make up over 80% of our economy. Data was light Monday and momentum appeared to still be coming from the rate cut earlier in the month.
Tuesday S&P 500 0.25% | NASDAQ 0.56%
Money supply extended, a good sign of economic health. Oil stockpiles fell more than expected last week, buoying a struggling oil market. Neither of these carried the day for markets, however. The focus was on a fresh batch of stimulus out of China that pushed global markets higher.
Wednesday S&P 500 0.19% | NASDAQ 0.04%
Housing data disappointed as new home sales fell 4.7% and building permits rose less than expected. It was a light data day on markets; however, the rest of the week was fairly packed. This led to a basically sideways day on markets.
Thursday S&P 500 0.40% | NASDAQ 0.60%
Core durable goods came in far better than expected at 0.5% for August. Initial jobless claims were lower than anticipated and remain fairly benign. GDP data showed the Q2 economy grew at 3%. The stronger than expected jobs and GDP data led to a small rally on markets.
Friday S&P 500 0.13% | NASDAQ 0.39%
Michigan Consumer Sentiment beat expectations, coming in at 70.1 for September. We have not had a reading that high since May. The Federal Reserve Boards (FRB) preferred gauge for inflation reported Friday, coming in at 2.2%. This was 0.1% lower than expected and only 0.2% away from the FRB target. The bad news was that core inflation appeared stickier, coming in 0.1% higher than last month at 2.7%. Markets slipped on the core data as concerns on inflation would make the FRB more hesitant on their next cut.
Conclusion S&P 500 0.62% | NASDAQ .95%
It was a boring week. Boring is good my friends! The VIX index has retreated from 16.15 the previous week to 15.31 this past Friday. That does not seem like much, but implies we should only expect .50% in daily movement over the next month. While that is great and low volatility is exactly what we want, there is still uncertainty ahead. I think boring might not hang around too long…
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