Market News – March 28, 2019

TENSION CAUSES STOCK SETBACK, REPRISE:  Trade tension between the world’s two largest economies, China and the U.S. continued to weigh on stock markets.  The S&P 500 had another negative week, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its fifth consecutive week of losses, the longest such streak since 2011.  Growing rhetoric by politicians about the trade standoff and higher tariffs caused a retreat from companies that rely on sales in China and those that buy supplies there.  Oil prices decreased on fears about the economic impact of tariffs, and this led to decreasing stock prices for energy companies.  Going into the holiday weekend, stocks on Friday bounced back a little, but not enough to erase the earlier losses.  It sounds a lot like last week.

WORST WEEK OF THE YEAR FOR OIL PRICES:  Oil prices suffered their worst week of the year last week, but they are still nowhere near the low point of 2018.  As you can see below, oil prices have become incredibly volatile.  Oil prices collapsed in 2008 during the financial crisis, and then recovered.  They dropped again in 2014 and 2015 due to oversupply.

ORDERS FOR DURABLE GOODS FALL IN APRIL:  According to the U.S. Commerce department, orders for durable goods (manufactured products designed to last three or more years) declined 2.1% in April from the prior month.  The major catalyst for the slowdown was a halt to sales of Boeing’s 737 MAX airliner.

MORTGAGE RATES FALL AGAIN:  For the fourth week in a row, average mortgage rates in the U.S. decreased.  Freddie Mac announced Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage slipped to 4.06% from 4.07% last week. A year ago the benchmark rate stood at 4.66%.  This should help the spring home-buying season.

REFERENCES:

TENSION CAUSES STOCK SETBACK, REPRISE:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-rise-after-selloff-11558685546
ORDERS FOR DURABLE GOODS FALLS IN APRIL: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-durable-goods-orders-fell-2-1-in-april-11558701287
WORST WEEK OF THE YEAR FOR OIL PRICES: https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2019/05/oil-prices-down-year-over-year.html
MORTGAGE RATES FALL AGAIN: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-long-term-mortgage-rates-144732838.html