Marketbites: U.S. Construction Remains Healthy
MARKET PERFORMANCE:
Portfolio Manager Commentary:
Stocks closed lower Tuesday as investors readied for key inflation reports due later in the week and progress on the U.S. debt limit. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) ended the day down less than 1%, amid ongoing concerns in the banking sector. Regional bank PacWest closed up 2.4%, after a volatile trading session.
Lucid, PayPal, and Skyworks closed down after their quarterly reports were released. Meanwhile, Palantir jumped 23% on a strong earnings report and upbeat guidance.
Traders are also looking ahead to April’s consumer price index report coming out today and the producer price index on Thursday for the newest data on the path of inflation. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect inflation to have increased 0.4% month-over-month in April, and 5% year-over-year. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy components, are expected to have climbed 0.4%.
Chart of the Day:
Manufacturers of construction equipment, trucks, building supplies, and industrial software are still ringing up sales, despite slowdowns in other parts of the U.S. economy. “We feel good about the market conditions,” Caterpillar Chief Executive Jim Umpleby said late last month after the construction-equipment maker’s quarterly sales rose by 17% from the same period last year and profit increased by 26%. U.S. construction spending in March rose by an adjusted rate of 0.3% from February, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Private nonresidential-construction spending was up by an adjusted 1% from February, powered by a 4.6% increase in manufacturing-related construction, which accounts for about a quarter of nonresidential spending.
Source: WSJ
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