10 Things You Need To Know: December 28, 2022
Key data releases this week include: FHFA House Price Index (Tue), pending home sales (Wed), and initial jobless claims (Thu).
MarketWatch
December 27, 2022
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city house price index fell 0.5% in October, its fourth monthly decline. Year-over-year prices rose rose 8.6%, slowing from 10.4% in the previous month. A separate report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed home prices remaining flat in October. And over the last year, the FHFA index was up 9.8%.
Bloomberg
December 23, 2022
The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy rose 0.2% in November from a month earlier. That matched estimates, but data for the prior month were revised higher. From a year earlier, the gauge was up 4.7%, a step down from a 5% gain in October. The overall PCE price index increased 0.1% and was up 5.5% from a year ago.
MarketWatch
December 22, 2022
The U.S. leading index fell a sharp 1% in November to mark the ninth decline in a row, extending a downturn that began last spring and points to a weakening economy. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.5% decline.
Bloomberg
December 22, 2022
US economic growth in the third quarter was firmer than previously estimated. Inflation-adjusted GDP increased at a 3.2% annualized rate during the period. That compares with a previously reported 2.9% advance. Personal consumption was revised significantly higher, advancing 2.3% compared to a previous estimate of 1.7% and reflecting stronger services spending.
Bloomberg
December 23, 2022
The US is concerned China’s runaway Covid-19 outbreak might spawn new mutations of the virus, as the world’s most populous country continues to grapple with the impact of loosening “Covid Zero” protocols that had kept the pandemic at bay. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a briefing: “We know that anytime the virus is spreading in the wild that it has the potential to mutate and to pose a threat to people everywhere.”
Barron’s
December 26, 2022
Global sales of robots hit a record $15.5 billion in 2021 and are on track to grow 10% this year, to around $17 billion, according to the International Federation of Robotics, a trade group. More than 517,000 robotic units were installed globally in 2021, 31% above 2020’s total. Worldwide sales of robotic units will top 600,000 this year, the trade group estimates.
Barron’s
December 26, 2022
Japan’s central bank caught investors off guard on Tuesday, indicating that it would allow the yield on 10-year government bonds to rise as high as 0.5% instead of the previous 0.25% cap. Most economists had not expected this move until next year. After hawkish policy statements last week from the European Central Bank, the move was taken as an indication that no central bank could be relied on to remain dovish.
Reuters
December 20, 2022
S&P 500 companies’ annual earnings growth is expected to slow to 4.7% next year from 5.7% this year, according to Refinitiv data. Earnings from the fourth quarter are projected to have dropped 1.1% compared with Q4 of 2021.
Bloomberg
December 20, 2022
An economist who foresaw the popping of the housing bubble more than 15 years ago expects US home prices to fall between 8% and 12% over the next two years as rising rates cut into pandemic-era demand. Tom Lawler, a former economist for Fannie Mae, sees demand falling in part because a shrinking number of people are moving out on their own and forming households.