Stocks finished marginally lower today on very light volume. The action remains practically insignificant. Daily Futures wraps up the action from all markets:
U.S. Economy
The Standard and Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of home prices in twenty cities was unchanged in October and down 7.3% from a year ago.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index increased from 50.6 to 52.9 in December, the best in three months and a little better than expected.
Redbook Research said that retail sales were up 3.0% last week from a year ago.
The U.S. Treasury sold $42 billion of 5-year T-notes at a median yield of 2.60% with a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.59. The March U.S. T-bonds finished up 13/32nds at 115.13/32nds.
Grains and Cotton
March soybeans were up 9 cents at $10.47 with ongoing support from stronger-than-expected 2009-2010 exports.
Livestock
February hogs closed up .72 at 65.42 with support from extremely cold temperatures in the north-central U.S. and a chance for fewer hogs in tomorrow afternoon’s USDA inventory report.
Orange juice
Weather.com is showing that temperatures in central Florida may dip into the upper-30’s on Friday and Saturday morning but no damage to the citrus crop is expected. March orange juice closed up 2.25 cents at $1.4065.
Currencies
France’s government said that real GDP was up .3% in the third quarter, but down 2.3% from a year ago.
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.