CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Mon 20 Jan, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
U.S. Dollar Index, +0.30%, 97.61
USDJPY, -0.01%, $110.14
EURUSD, -0.41%, $1.1091
GBPUSD, -0.53%, $1.3010
USDCAD, +0.18%, $1.3065
AUDUSD, -0.36%, $0.6874
NZDUSD, -0.39%, $0.6614
U.S. Total housing starts surged 16.9% m/m in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.608 million (consensus 1.380 million), driven by an 11.2% increase in single-family starts and a 30% increase in multi-unit starts. Building permits, meanwhile, declined 3.9% m/m to 1.416 million (consensus 1.460 million), with single-family permits down 0.5%.
Industrial production declined 0.3% in December (consensus +0.1%), pressured by a 5.6% decline in utilities output that stemmed from unseasonably warm weather. The capacity utilization rate fell to 77.0% from an upwardly revised 77.4% (from 77.3%) in November. The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment for January declined to 99.1 (consensus 98.9) from 99.3 in November.
China’s economy grew by 6.1% in 2019, the lowest annual growth rate for 29 years, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Friday. However, despite falling to a new low since 1990, when political turmoil drove economic growth down to 3.9%, the 6.1% rate met the target range of between 6.0% and 6.5% set by the central government at the beginning of last year, but was below the market expectation of 6.2%. The headline figure was in line with forecasts of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for China’s economic growth this year.
U.S. Treasuries finished mixed amid some curve-steepening activity. The 2-yr yield declined one basis point to 1.56%, while the 10-yr yield increased three basis points to 1.84%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.3% to 97.61. WTI crude increased 0.1% to $58.55/bbl.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, +0.39%, 3,329.62
Nasdaq, +0.34%, 9,388.94
Nikkei Futures, +0.38%, 24,030.0
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished in the green. The communication services (+0.9%) and utilities (+0.8%) sectors outperformed, while the energy sector (-0.7%) underperformed.
The industrials sector (unch) also included its fair share of laggards. Boeing (BA 324.15, -7.85, -2.4%) extended losses on a report of another software issue, and several transportation stocks fell after issuing relatively disappointing earnings results and/or guidance.
Expeditors International (EXPD 76.82, -4.52, -5.6%), J.B. Hunt (JBHT 114.68, -5.08, -4.2%), and CSX (CSX 76.40, -0.34, -0.4%) let investors down, while KC Southern (KSU 166.52, +4.89, +3.0%) shareholders were able to look past its earnings miss.
Separately, Alphabet (GOOG 1480.39, +28.69, +2.0%) and Apple (AAPL 318.73, +3.49, +1.1%) benefited from a pair of positive analyst recommendations. UBS raised its GOOG price target to $1675 from $1460. Morgan Stanley raised its AAPL price target to $368 from $296.