Drill baby, drill pledge sends oil prices down today
Oil slid as U..S President Donald Trump promised to boost U.S. crude production. Brent crude retreated almost 1% to near $80 a barrel.
VEA
Jobs surprise–economy delivers stronger than expected performance in December
In December U.S. economy in December added the most jobs since March and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell. Nonfarm payrolls increased 256,000, exceeding all but one forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, while average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from November, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Friday. For 2024 as a whole, the economy added 2.2 million jobs—-below the 3 million increase in 2023 but above the 2 million created in 2019. The data almost certainly assured that the Federal Reserve would not cut interest rates at its January 29 meeting. As of 11 a.m. New York time, the yield on the 10-year Treasury had climbed another 5 basis points to 4.74%.
China’s deflation problem got worse in December
China’s consumer price index rose 0.1% in December from a year earlier, in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Factory deflation extended into a 27th month, though the producer price index recorded a slower drop of 2.3%, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. For the full year, consumer prices only inched up 0.2% from 2023, well short of the 1.1% gain economists had predicted at the beginning of 2024.
Fed’s December minutes another nail in the coffin for early interest rate cuts
In minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December 17-18 meeting released on Wednesday, January 8, Federal Reserve officials clearly decided to move more slowly on cutting interest rates in the quarters ahead. “Participants indicated that the committee was at or near the point at which it would be appropriate to slow the pace of policy easing,” minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee showed. “Many participants suggested that a variety of factors underlined the need for a careful approach to monetary policy decisions over coming quarters.” Please note the reference to “quarters” and not “months.”
More bad news for stocks from the bond market today
The 20-year Treasury bond, a laggard on the government debt curve since its re-introduction in 2020, topped 5% Wednesday for the first time since 2023. The move looks to be fueled by concern that President-elect Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs and tax cuts will lead to wider deficits and rekindle inflation.
Stocks fall as they begin to price in no rate cut until July
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of services advanced 2 points to 54.1 last month. That show of strength in the economy–readings above 50 indicate expansion–was enough to push stocks lower as the markets began to price in a delay in the next interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve until July The measure of prices paid for materials and services rose more than 6 points to 64.4, suggesting that the drop in the inflation rate in the service sector–about 70% of the U.S. economy–might be over.
European markets sink into bear today; I’m switching back to yen and selling the euro in my ETF Portfolio
Back on October 3 I switched from the Invesco Currency Shares Japanese Yen ETF (FXY) to the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA) in an effort to get a little more performance out of this slot in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio. (This ETF invest in both Japan and...
Re-buy Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets for my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio
Earlier today I sold the Invesco Currency Japanese Yen ETF (FXY) in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio. Now I'm replacing it with the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA). The sell and the buy will cut the portfolio's exposure to the Japanese yen and increase its...
I’m selling VEA out of my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio today
I'm continuing to revise the holdings in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio in order to reduce risk from the effects of a global trade war and yet to still make some money--as I outlined in my Special Report: 5 Places to Hide from a Downturn--and Still Make Some Money. I...
Making a tweak–yes, already–to the Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio to get more Japan in the mix
I certainly don’t intend to turn the Perfect 5 ETF Active Passive Portfolio into a trading portfolio, but when facts on the ground change, I do want to respond. The recent overwhelming election victory of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has given Abe-nomics renewed life. That means financial markets and Japan’s huge export sector can count on continued policies from the Bank of Japan that weaken the yen versus the currencies of trading partners and that look to increase growth in the Japanese economy from the country’s export sector. Japan’s stock market has been on something of a tear in 2017 and I think that’s likely to continue
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