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DOW + 63 = 17,596
SPX + 9 = 2035
NAS + 24 = 4708
10 YR YLD + .01 = 2.18%
OIL – 1.22 = 59.72
GOLD + 1.30 = 1228.40
SILV + .04 = 17.20
We have a lot to cover. Let's start with the economic news. The government reported early this morning that retail sales in November expanded at the fastest pace in eight months, rising 0.7%. A wide variety of retailers reported healthy sales last month. Retail sales growth hit 1.7% for autos, the most since August; and 1.2% for clothing, the most since April. Sales at building material and garden equipment stores jumped 1.4%, the most since April; while online or non-store retailers saw a 1% sales gain.
The Commerce Department reports business inventories rose 0.2% in October, as building material and clothing stores both built stocks heading into the holiday season. That represents a 4.8% gain from October 2013.
The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits hit the lowest level in three weeks, as employers continued to lay off very few workers. Initial claims for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits inched down by 3,000 to 294,000 in the week that ended Dec. 6.
The prices paid for imported goods fell 1.5% in November, the largest drop since June 2012, dragged down by lower fuel prices. Excluding fuel, import prices declined by 0.2% last month. The price of US-made goods exported to other nations, meanwhile, fell by 1% in November, the biggest decline since April.
Household wealth in the US dropped $140 billion from July through September, or 0.2% from the previous quarter to $81.3 trillion. The Federal Reserve used to call this report the flow of funds survey. Survey says the net worth of households dropped because of stock market weakness over the summer; the value of financial assets, including stocks and pension fund holdings, held by American households decreased by $315 billion in the third quarter. So the drop may be temporary, as stocks have rebounded in the fourth quarter. Household real-estate assets climbed by $214 billion.
The OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has ranked 43 nations on various economic measures. The typical American is even poorer than his or her equivalent in Greece. The median Australian is four times wealthier. The Canadians are twice as wealthy. The US continues to lead the world in billionaires (571 in 2014, with China a distant second at 190). But Americans rank 26th in median wealth (defined as assets owned, minus debts owed for the person on the middle rung of the wealth ladder).
