Weekly Market Review - January 23, 2018

By Bradley J. Rathe
Chief Investment Officer

January 23, 2018

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." - Henry Ford

Weekly look back:

1. With equity markets at new highs, you would expect consumer confidence would be at new highs as well however the reading fell to 94.4 compared to 97 expected.  This will be a reading to be watched to see if this trend continues.
2. Industrial Production surged up by .9% and capacity utilization moved up to 77.9% giving support to the increase in inflation expectations.
3. The Federal Reserve surveys from the 12 districts that are written in the beige book was for the most part only "Modest-to-Moderate" and only the Dallas region described as "Robust". 

Weekly look ahead:

1. Both existing and new home sales had extremely strong reports last month and expectations are high for continuing the trend.  As interest rates have started to rise this year it may start to dampen growth later in the year.
2. GDP is expected to come down to 2.9% compared to 3.2% in the prior quarter.  Anything close to 3% is considered a strong reading.
3. The ECB meets this week and there has been much talk about how they are going to start to change their rhetoric towards less accommodative policy going forward. 

World Macro highlights for this week: 

Wednesday: Existing Home Sales
Thursday: ECB Meeting, New Home Sales
Friday: Durable Goods Orders, GDP

Graph Of The Week

As mortgage rates start to rise housing numbers may start to fall off later in the year but for the time being, expectations are high for good numbers.

Unless otherwise expressly indicated, the opinions or views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect, and may differ from, the opinions or views of Strategic Financial Group, LLC or others within Strategic Financial Group, LLC, including its officers, managers, owners, employees or other service providers.