Afternoon Note
Housing Starts
Housing starts in August increased 9.2%, from July, rose 9.4% from prior year, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.282 million units. Single-family housing starts came 1.9% higher at 876,000 and multi-family starts surged 29.3% to 406,000.
Single-family starts by region:
Building permits came down 5.7% for the month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.229 million, the slowest pace since May 2017. Multi-family permits fell 4.9% and single-family permits dropped 6.1%. Permits are a good leading indicator of future construction. The drop-off in permits contradicts the builder sentiment reported by the National Association of Home Builders Index released yesterday. The index remained steady at 67, a reading over 50 is positive.
Crude Inventories
For the week ending September 14, crude oil inventories decreased 2.1 million barrels to 394.1 million barrels, the lowest inventory level since February 2015. Analysts were looking for a draw of 2.7 million. Gasoline inventories fell 1.7 million barrels to 234.2 million barrels; analysts were expecting a draw of 1.6 million. Gasoline consumption typically increases in the summer and falls in autumn, but demand remained strong in the latest week, estimated at 9.53 million bpd.
Distillate inventories rose 800,000 barrels to 240.1 million barrels, analyst had been looking for a draw of 282,000 barrel. The report was over all bullish and has crude trading 1.2% higher at $70.71. Above-all, $70 is a psychological number.
Petroleum Report |
Change |
Estimate |
Total Inventory |
Crude Oil |
-2,100,000 |
-2,700,000 |
394.1 million |
Distillates |
800,000 |
-282,000 |
240.1 million |
Gasoline |
-1,700,000 |
-1,600,000 |
234.2 million |
Markets are mixed with metals and miners leading the way for a third day. Drillers are strong, following two upgrades for TransOcean (RIG). RIG is trading higher by over 4% and gains in the group range from 1.2%-5.6%. Utilities are getting crushed on concerns of rising interest rate, the group is trading down, close to 2%. On the opposite end of the rising rate spectrum, financials are trading higher by 1.8% following reports that Goldman Sachs (GS) is nearing a deal to spin-off its Simon investment product app, the stock is trading higher by 2.7%.
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I saw something on your show tonight - can’t remember what it was, but, I agree. Kavanaugh circus? Tom Holcomb on 9/19/2018 7:56:09 PM |
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