The KUIK Morning Market Report for Tuesday, December 19:
Markets are down.
Index
Direction
Change
Units
Index
Time
Change
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Down
(16)
points
24,776
7:13 AM
S&P500
Down
-0.3%
percent
2,689
2.55
Nasdaq Composite
Down
-0.2%
percent
6,984
(0.72)
30 Year Treasury
Up
3
Basis Points
2.78
Annual Yield
The Commerce Department reports housing starts ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.297 million in November. That’s better than the 1.25 million expected by economists and 3.3% higher than October’s revised pace, and 12.9% higher than a year ago. Permits, which lead activity, were up up 1.4% to a 1.29 million rate.
The U.S. current-account deficit, which measures our debt to other countries, fell 19% in the third quarter to the lowest level in three years. It fell to $100.6 billion from $124.4 billion. The current account deficit was 2.1% of GDP in the third quarter. That’s down from 2.6% in the second and well below the peak of 6.3% in 2005.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the final version of the tax bill today, while the Senate vote is expected to follow either on today or Wednesday. That should be enough time for the bill to land on President Trump’s desk for the final signature before Christmas, which is the Republicans’ goal.
Serving the West Side first, I am Bill Roller of BR Capital for 1360 KUIK.
