U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index reached an all-
time high, as investors awaited reports to gauge the strength of the recovery in the world’s biggest economy.
MannKind Corp. doubled in early New York trading after its inhaled treatment for diabetes won the recommendation of a U.S. advisory panel. Netflix Inc. climbed in New York as Les Echos reported it will seek to avoid French rules on financing and promoting French-language movies when targeting that market. Apollo Education Group Inc. slipped 2.7 percent in pre-market trading after it received a subpoena from the Education Department for marketing and recruitment records.
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in June added 0.1 percent to 1,879.7 at 7:25 a.m. in New York. The equity gauge climbed 1.3 percent in the first three months of 2014, its fifth consecutive quarterly advance. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts gained 21 points, or 0.1 percent, today.
“Today’s ADP numbers will be the most important signpost for markets,” Witold Bahrke, who helps oversee $55 billion as a senior strategist at PFA Asset Management in Copenhagen, wrote in an e-mail. “Growth appears not too strong to feed the Fed’s hawks but neither too slow to question the recovery, re-
emphasizing the sweet-spot concept — which should be the most favorable environment for risky assets in 2014.”
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week that “considerable slack” in the labor market is evidence that the central bank’s unprecedented accommodation will be needed for “some time” to put Americans back to work.
A report from ADP Research Institute at 8:15 a.m. New York time may show that U.S. companies added more workers last month than in February, according to economists’ forecasts. A separate release from the Commerce Department at 10 a.m. may show factory orders rose in February. The data showed weakness earlier this year as the unusually harsh winter curtailed economic activity.
Most European stocks climbed as investors awaited reports that may show the U.S. economic recovery is gathering pace following the harsh winter. U.S. index futures were little changed, while Asian shares advanced.
Deutsche Post AG added 3.6 percent after Europe’s largest mail service predicted operating profit will rise through 2020. Neste Oil Oyj rallied 5.4 percent after a U.S. Senate committee proposed extending a tax credit for biodiesel. Deutsche Boerse AG dropped 2.5 percent after confirming that one of its
businesses has become the subject of a criminal investigation.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.2 percent to 337.11 at 12:37 p.m. in London as more than three stocks rose for every two that fell. The benchmark has climbed 3.9 percent since March 24 as better-than-forecast U.S. consumer-confidence data signaled the world’s largest economy has rebounded from the bad winter. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures increased 0.1 percent today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.4 percent, advancing for the sixth day.
• Support:1877, 1869, 1858
• Resistance: 1889, 1893, 1905
Home prices in the U.S. are poised to rise as housing regains its historical standing as a way to minimize the risks of inflation, according to Rod Smyth, chief investment strategist at RiverFront Investment Group LLC.
As the CHART OF THE DAY illustrates, the median price of a single-family home has risen by an average of 1 percentage point more than the consumer price index since 1969. The comparison is based on data provided by the National Association of Realtors and the Commerce Department.
Twelve-month averages of real, or inflation-adjusted, home prices are displayed in the chart. The latest average, for the 12 months ended in February, surpassed $200,000 for the first time since May 2009.
“Housing has been a good hedge against inflation, except following periods of house-price speculation,” Smyth wrote two days ago in a report featuring a similar chart.
Prices turned higher in March 2012, three years into the current bull market in U.S. stocks. The average real price rose 17 percent through February, which trailed a 32 percent advance for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in the same period.
“A recovery is under way” that will make housing more competitive with stocks as an investment, Smyth wrote. The Richmond, Virginia-based strategist collaborated with two colleagues on the report.
Interesting that this is the wording that we seem to hear more often than not and I have to agree with it. We're not hearing "the U.S. economy's expanded to record levels"; OK so we could argue that percapita real GDP's reached an all time high ($52,323 for Q3 2013), but we've also got too many other factors on the downside (imho).