Notes You Need for January 17: China data, casino REITs, natural gas, target price increase for homebuilders, Bitcoin, MRK, U.S. dollar,

Notes You Need for January 17: China data, casino REITs, natural gas, target price increase for homebuilders, Bitcoin, MRK, U.S. dollar,

In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. A typical items resembles this from today: “4:20 p.m.: The U.S. Dollar Index gave up a morning gain to fall back to 90.32 before rallying again to close at 90.736, up 0.34 on the day. Some analysts think that the 90 level on the index might give support to the U.S. currency against other major currencies. Others think the dollar is on the verge of falling to a new thee-year low that could open the way to further declines.”