Another very busy day for President Trump with more executive orders signed.  President Trump plans to bring back the good ole days by building our own pipelines with our own steel and bringing back thousands of jobs, some temporary, others permanent.  Trump is determined to reduce the regulatory burdens on U.S. companies from the current tangled mess. 

So in keeping with his campaign promises, he signed 3 executive orders:

1. Advance the Keystone XL Pipeline
2. Advance the Dakota Pipeline
3. Executive order to expedite the environmental regulatory process

On the economic front, existing home sales were a disappointment, falling 2.8% to 5.49 million units from November’s 5.65 million. For 2016, 5.54 million homes were sold, the highest level since 2006, up 3.8%, and slightly higher from last year.  

Inventory of 1.65 million, is only a 3.6 month supply, the lowest since 1999.  This lack of inventory has caused prices to spike 41% in the past 5 years, far outpacing incomes.  The median price for a home was up 4% to $232,000.  The price and inventory is pressuring the first time home buyer, which represents 32% of all sales and is unchanged from November and from December 2015.  And none of this takes into account the latest interest rate hike, as these are deals done in November and the beginning of December.

The markets are all in the green currently with energy, materials and technology leading the way, but have been range bound of late with the S&P500 trading in a narrow 1.6% range in January (as of yesterday’s close).  If there isn’t a pick up by the end of the month and these levels continue, according to Oppenheimer, this could be the tightest trading range since 1965.  Advancers are leading decliners 2081/763 on the NYSE and 1765/1003 on the Nasdaq. 

Energy is up today on all the pipeline news as well as OPEC being well on the way to meeting its production cuts.  WTI is up 1.35% to $53.46 a barrel and Brent is up .81% TO $55.68.  Gold is lower as the greenback has strengthened.  Treasury Yields have ticked up with the 10-yr at 2.449 and the 30-yr at 3.034.