Economic News for the week ending March 1, 2019

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Weekly Commentary: 

Just the Facts 3/1/2019

by Doug Noland

full column here:

http://creditbubblebulletin.blogspot.com/2019/03/weekly-commentary-just-facts-312019.html

My summary follows:

For the week ending

March 1, 2019:

GLOBAL  STOCKS

S&P500 up 0.4% (up 11.8% year-to-date)

Dow Industrials little changed (up 11.6%)

Dow Utilities down 0.3% (up 8.0%)

Dow Transports down 1.2% (up 14.1%)

S&P 400 Midcaps down 0.4% (up 15.8%)

Small cap Russell 2000 unchanged (up 17.9%). 

Nasdaq100 up 0.9% (up 13.0%)

Biotechs surged 4.3% (up 21.8%)

With gold bullion dropping $35, 

the HUI gold stock index sank 5.6% 

   (up 2.5%)

U.K.'s FTSE declined 1.0% (up 5.6% y-t-d).

Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.8% (up 7.9% y-t-d).

France's CAC40 gained 0.9% (up 11.3%)

German DAX rose 1.3% (up 9.9%)

Spain's IBEX 35 increased 0.7% (up 8.5%)

Italy's FTSE MIB jumped 2.1% (up 12.9%)

Brazil's Bovespa sank 3.4% (up 7.6%)

Mexico's Bolsa fell 2.6% (up 2.4%)

South Korea's Kospi lost 1.6% (up 7.6%)

India's Sensex increased 0.5% (unchanged). 

China's Shanghai surged 6.8% (up 20.1%)

Turkey's Istanbul National 100 little changed (up 13.1%). 

Russia's MICEX slipped 0.4% (up 5.1%).

US  BONDS  &  MORTGAGES:

Ten-year Treasury yields 

jumped 10 bps to 2.75% (up 7bps). 

Long bond yields 

gained 11 bps to 3.12% (up 11bps). 

Benchmark Fannie Mae MBS yields

 surged 13 bps to 3.53% (up 4bps).

Freddie Mac 30-year fixed mortgage rates 

were unchanged at a one-year low 4.35% 

    (down 8bps y-o-y). 

Fifteen-year rates 

slipped a basis point to 3.77% 

   (down 13bps). 

Five-year hybrid ARM rates 

were unchanged at 3.84%       

   (up 22bps). 

Jumbo mortgage 30-yr fixed rates 

up seven bps to 4.42% 

   (down 19bps).

Federal Reserve Credit 

over the past year, 

contracted 9.8%. 

M2  "Narrow money" 

gained 4.5%, 

over the past year.

Currency Watch:

The U.S. dollar index 

was little changed at 96.527 

(up 0.4% y-t-d).

Commodities Watch:

Goldman Sachs Commodities Index dropped 1.9% (up 12.6% y-t-d). Spot Gold fell 2.6% to $1,293 (up 0.9%). Silver sank 4.7% to $15.256 (down 1.8%). Crude fell $1.46 to $55.80 (up 23%). Gasoline declined 2.1% (up 33%), while Natural Gas rose 4.4% (down 3%). Copper slipped 0.5% (up 11%). Wheat sank 7.0% (down 9%). Corn fell 3.0% (down 1%).

The rest of this 

usually long column

was not yet available

on Saturday morning, 

when I typed

this summary

 -- I expect them to be available 

when I'm on line again, in a few days.