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Market Direction Is Important –
Updated Chart of the S&P 500 and Secondary Signals
Of our Four secondary indicators under our MTI:
Relative Strength Index (RSI)-Positive
Chaikin Money Flow (CMF)-Positive
MACD- Negative
Money Flow Index-MFI-Positive
More on the Market and the Economy:
Stocks finished higher on Friday, with the S&P 500 closing at a new record high and ending the holiday-shortened week with a .9% gain.
This week data will be released on new home sales, pending home sales, manufacturing, consumer spending, GDP and the Fed’s Beige Book.
The release of the Fed’s FOMC meeting minutes showed that officials left a rate hike on the table for the near future, though the language was less certain, as “many” policymakers consider a rate increase “warranted in the near term”. In September officials called a rate hike likely “later this year”. The minutes also showed that “many participants observed that there was some likelihood that inflation might remain below 2% for longer than they currently expected” as low inflation “might reflect not only transitory factors, but also the influence of developments that could prove more persistent”.
The Conference Board’s leading economic index rose a solid 1.2% in October “as the impact of the hurricanes dissipated. The growth of the LEI, coupled with widespread strengths among its components, suggests that solid growth in the US economy will continue through the holiday season and into the new year.”
Sales of existing homes rose 2% in October to an annual rate of 5.48 million. According to the National Association of Realtors, “job growth in most of the country continues to carry on at a robust level and is starting to slowly push up wages, which is in turn giving households added assurance that now is a good time to buy a home. While the housing market gained a little more momentum last month, sales are still below year ago levels because low inventory is limiting choices for prospective buyers and keeping price growth elevated”.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecast for fourth quarter growth held steady at 3.4% following the release of durable manufacturing data.
According to the National Retail Federation, an estimated 69% of Americans (164 million) planned to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend, with 115 million consumers shopping on Black Friday and 71 million shopping on Saturday.
