Significant Russian military buildup near Baltics and Ukraine, even as far north near Sweden
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rssHedge fund manager Ackman – Fed needs to restore its credibility, 50bp rate hike in March
Chinese home prices continue to slow in sign of Evergrande hit
Engineering a soft landing is one of the most-difficult tasks a macro policymaker can undertake but it’s what Chinese officials have been trying to do in housing.
Saturday’s Chinese home price data underscores the risks with prices up 2.6% y/y in a deceleration from 3.0% y/y in November.
As recently as mid-2019, prices were rising at a 10% clip. But we’ve now seen several instances of officials attempting to gently deflate the bubble.
Evergrande is certainly the kind of thing that can change the psychology around housing and the large amounts of investment properties add to the risks.
Thought For A Day
S&P and Nasdaq index close at session highs.Major indices down for the week.
The major US stock indices are closing mixed, but both the NASDAQ and the S&P index erased declines and are closing near the highs for the day.
- For the week, the major indices are all lower.
- The Dow closed lower and was down for the second straight day
- NASDAQ closes higher despite higher yields with the 10 year yield up 8.0 basis points
The final numbers are showing:
- Dow industrial average fell -201.81 points or -0.56% at 3591.82
- S&P index rose 3.82 points or 0.08% at 4662.84. The low price took the index down -44.22 points or -0.95%
- NASDAQ index rose 86.95 points or 0.59% at 14893.76. The low price took the index down -117.5 points or -0.79%. It also took the price below its 200 day moving average near 14726. On Monday the index moved below the 200 day moving average and close higher. Today was the second try below the 200 day moving average and the second failure at closing below the level
- Russell 2000 rose 3.01 points or 0.14% at 2162.45
For the week, the major indices all closed lower:
- Dow was the worst performer with a decline of -0.83%
- S&P index fell -0.27%
- NASDAQ index fell -0.29%
Thought For A Day
Jamie Dimon: There could be six or seven rate hikes this year
JPMorgan is in its post-earnings conference call. Shares have dropped to $159 from $168 on earnings.
Dimon has been talking about faster rate hikes for awhile.
Apple products over 30 years:
BOJ makes first ETF purchase since 1 October 2021 on Friday
The Topix slumped by 1.4% to 1,977.66 but closed a little off the lows of 1,962.03 earlier in the day, holding at its 200-day moving average. The BOJ has been rather pedestrian in intervening in the stock market ever since the policy change in March last year and that has been evident by the more sideways action in Japanese equities since.
Today’s ETF purchase was the first since October last year but I wouldn’t look much into it unless the BOJ starts to do this more frequently moving forward.
North Korea reportedly fired unidentified projectile towards the East Sea
This is the second time this week, following a similar incident a few days ago here. Tensions are stirring and the frequency of these missile “tests” serves as an indication for how things are developing at the moment. Markets have generally learned to shrug this off but just be wary in case there are any actual risks that may arise.