Strong Economic Data And Housing Boost Market

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere. Stocks traded at record intra-day highs Friday morning as strong global economic data, strong housing data, and a solid start to the earnings season led to another week of gains. This week's move for the S&P 500 and DOW are close to posting the best weekly gain in 5 months.

All three of the major indexes hit intraday highs in Friday morning trading with the S&P 500 hitting 3,326.44 up +1.7% for the week. The DOW continues to trade above 29,000, hitting a high of 29,373.62, posting a +1.7% gain. The NASDAQ will post a weekly gain of +1.9% and hit a record high of 9,393.48.

Chinese industrial data for December came in better than expected, with production rising +6.9% on a year-over-year basis. The overall Chinese economy grew by +6.1% in 2019, matching expectations. To be sure, that is also the slowest growth rate for the Chinese economy since 1990.

In the U.S., housing starts soared nearly +17% in December and reached a 13-year high. That data follows Thursday's release of better-than-forecast weekly jobless claims and strong business activity numbers from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve.

Let's not forget that the U.S. and China signed a phase 1 trade deal this week, putting a pause on a long-simmering battle between two of the biggest world economies. Additionally, strong earnings from the big banks, led by Morgan Stanley (MS), showed that the domestic consumer remains strong.

Crude oil continues to fall back to earth, losing another -1.1% this week trading at the $58 a barrel level. This week's loss comes after crude oil lost -6.1% last week after Iran tensions cooled considerably.

Gold has settled back into a trading range just above the $1,500 a once level and trying to squeak out a weekly gain but is currently in negative territory losing roughly -.3%.

The big mover of the week is Bitcoin, which will post a weekly gain of almost 10% with a gain of +9.8% as I record this video. This week's gain will mark five straight weeks of gains setting up Bitcoin to trigger a new green monthly Trade Triangle at the $10,350 level.

Key Levels To Watch Next Week:

Every Success,
Jeremy Lutz
INO.com and MarketClub.com