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“The American press is a shame and a reproach to a civilized people.” – General William T. Sherman
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If you think antipathy towards the press is a new aspect of the current zeitgeist, think again. The quote above is from Civil War General Sherman who had plenty of disdain for the media in his writings and comments. He also once commented that if every reporter in the world was killed, “I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.” Loathing the press among many of the subjects it covers is nothing new. We bring up Sherman this morning because 160 years ago today, he led more than 50,000 soldiers across the state of Georgia from Atlanta to the coast in Savanah destroying nearly everything in its path. The purpose was to kill both the morale of Southerners as well as the supply lines of the Confederate Army, and it ultimately led to the end of the war. Now, on to the markets.
Heading into halftime for the month, equity futures are firmly lower again this morning as the S&P 500 is indicated to open down about half a percent while the Nasdaq is even weaker. The Nasdaq’s weakness can be chalked up to Applied Materials (AMAT) which is down about 8% after a cautious earnings report. Economic data as far this morning has been much stronger than expected with Empire Manufacturing, Retail Sales, and Import Prices topping expectations. Still ahead this morning, we’ll get Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization at 9:15. Yields are basically unchanged, crude oil is up fractionally, gold is trying to rebound from an 8% decline from its recent highs, and bitcoin is back to flirting with $90K after dropping down as low as $88,000 overnight.
In Asia, Japanese stocks finished the week just like they started it with modest gains sandwiching three days of losses in between. The same couldn’t be said for China where the Shanghai Composite fell over 1% taking its losses for the week to 3.5%. Offshore Chinese stocks fell even more for the week declining over 6%. Every other major benchmark also finished the week lower, and Australia was the only country to skate by with declines of less than 1%. The Chinese government released several notable economic reports, and the numbers were mixed with Industrial/Manufacturing data missing forecasts. Measures of the consumer (Retail Sales and Unemployment), however, came in better than expected.
European stocks are closing out the week on a more subdued note as the STOXX 600 is down less than half a percent putting its week-to-date performance into the red. UK GDP was weaker than expected while inflation data in Germany and France came in slightly higher than expected echoing the trend in the US where inflation has proven to be stickier than most economists had hoped.
In yesterday’s email, we noted that neutral sentiment plunged in the latest week as investors have seemingly become a lot more decisive now that the election has passed. Looking at sector performance, the market has also started to discern between winners and losers. The snapshot below from our Trend Analyzer shows where sectors finished the day yesterday relative to their short-term trading ranges. Of the eleven sectors, six settled at overbought levels, four were overbought, and just one – Utilities – was oversold. We touched on this Monday, but as the week has progressed, the dispersion has only become more extreme.
