Weekly Market Recap – April 28, 2023

President Biden announced his re-election bid to run on the 2024 Democratic ticket. First Republic Bank reported the loss of $100 billion in customer deposits since the end of last year. The Southwest Airlines quarterly earnings release cited a 22% revenue surge in March ($5.7 billion in Q1), a huge recovery from its December scheduling debacle.

Monthly economic statistics compared with previous data were: S&P Case-Shiller home price index (year over year) +0.4% vs. +2.5%, pending home sales -5.2% vs. +0.8%, new home sales 683,000 vs. 623,000, durable goods +3.2% vs. -1.2%. personal income (nominal) unchanged at +0.3%, personal spending (nominal) 0.0% vs. +1.1%, consumer confidence index 101.3 vs. 104.0, PCE index +0.1% vs. +0.3% and PCE (year over year) +4.2% vs. +5.1%. Weekly employment figures reported initial jobless claims fell to 230,000 from 245,000 and continuing unemployment claims eased to 1.86 million from 1.87 million. Quarterly stats showed that GDP rose +1.1% in Q1 vs. the Q4 increase of 2.6% and the employment cost index was +1.2% vs. +1.0%.

After sliding at the start of the week, stocks snapped back on Thursday and Friday, pushing the indices we report into positive territory. The DJIA finished at 34,098.16 (+0.9%), the S&P 500 went out at 4,169.48 (+0.9%), and the NASDAQ Composite closed at 12,226.58 (+1.3%). CBOE’s VIX showed that the fear factor was ebbing by 5.9% to 15.78 at the closing bell. In currencies, the USD Index futures slipped 0.1%, settling at 101.403 on Friday. Commodities in the S&P GSCI futures portfolio pressured the index down 1.6% to 564.96 at the week’s end.

Metals were mostly lower. Closing prices and percentage increases were as follows: gold at $1,999.10 (+0.4%), silver at $24.999 (-0.2%), platinum at $1,090.10 (-4.3%), palladium at $1,509.90 (-6.1%), copper at $3.8700 (-2.8%) and aluminum at $2,356.00 (-1.7%).

In energy futures that we monitor, as with the prior week, all moved lower except for NYMEX natural gas. Settlement prices and percentage movements for the contracts in this sector were: WTI crude at $76.78 per barrel (-1.4%), Brent crude at $79.54 (-2.6%), heating oil at $2.3771 per gallon (-4.1%), RBOB gasoline at $2.5301 (-1.8%), NYMEX natural gas at $2.410 (+0.1%) and ICE Dutch gas fell 4.5%, going out at €38.538 per MWh.

The weekly directional movements for the nine agricultural product markets we report were four higher and five lower. The gainers were: sugar at 26.35¢ (+8.3%), cotton at 80.80¢ (+0.8%), live cattle at 165.475 (+0.6%), and lean hogs at 91.700 (+6.5%). The contracts that fell into the red were: soybeans at $14.19¼ (-2.1%), corn at $5.85 (-4.9%), wheat at $6.33¾ (-5.8%), coffee at $1.8595 (-2.9%) and cocoa at $2,937 (-1.5%).

Futures Referenced in Market Recap

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