The KUIK Morning Market Report for Thursday, December 21:
Markets are up
Index
Direction
Change
Units
Index
Time
Change
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Up
83
points
24,810
7:18 AM
S&P500
Up
0.2%
percent
2,685
2.55
Nasdaq Composite
Up
0.1%
percent
6,968
(0.72)
30 Year Treasury
Down
(2)
Basis Points
2.86
Annual Yield
The Labor Department reports initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 20,000 to 245,000 the week ended December 16. That was above the 230,000 expected by economists. Continuing claims, rose by 43,000 to 1.93 million the week before. The biggest job losses were in New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts.
The Chicago Fed’s index of national economic activity cooled to a positive 0.15 in November from an upwardly revised plus 0.76 in October which was the highest reading since December 2006. The index is a weighted average of 85 economic indicators, designed so that zero represents trend growth and a three-month average below negative 0.70 suggests a recession has begun. Forty-two of the 85 individual indicators were positive in November, while 43 were negative.
Freddie Mac reports the 30-year fixed-rate mortgageaveraged 3.94% this week up from last week’s 3.93%. A year ago it was 4.30%. The 15-year averaged 3.38% up from 3.36%. A year ago it was 3.52%.
Serving the West Side first, I am Bill Roller of BR Capital for 1360 KUIK.
