Money Watch Weekly Wrap
US stocks fell for the sixth straight week, the longest losing streak since the fall of 2002. When judged on a time basis, the drop seems interminable, but the actual damage has been bad, but not terrible, with the Dow down 6.7 percent from its April 29th high.
The most frequently asked question from news radio anchors all week was: "Why is the market falling?" The answer is: investors fear that the global economic recovery is slowing and unlike last year, when similar fears were pervasive (you can be forgiven for blocking out the 14 percent drop in the Dow from late April 2010 until early July), this time around, the Fed is unlikely to come to the rescue with QE3.
- DJIA: 11951, down 1.6% on week, up 3.2% YTD
- S&P 500: 1270, down 2.2% on week, up 1% YTD
- NASDAQ: 2643, down 3.2% on week, DOWN 0.3% YTD
- July Crude Oil: $99.29, down $0.93 on week
- August Gold: $1529.20, down $13.20 on week
Total bank failures for 2011 = 45 (0 new bank failures over weekend)
FACTOIDS OF THE WEEK: How You Doin'? (Hat tip Wendy Williams)
The Federal Reserve released the Q1 2011 Flow of Funds report, which is a quick snap shot of US household wealth. Here are some of the results:
- Q1 2011 Total Net Worth: $58.06 trillion, up 1.65% ($943B) from Q4
- Household stock holdings: +6.7% to $8.79 trillion
- Household stock holding peak (2007): $9.63 trillion
- Household mutual-fund holdings: +6.7% to $5.05 trillion
- Household residential real estate holdings: -2.1% to $16.1 trillion
- Household residential real estate assets: -$6.6 trillion from peak of $65.8 trillion in Q2 2007
- Household real estate losses are almost twice as large as stock market losses
- Home loans: -0.7%, to $9.99 trillion, nearly back to 2007 levels
Mon 6/13:
Tues 6/14:
8:30 PPI
8:30 Retail Sales
10:00 Business Inventories
Weds 6/15:
8:30 CPI
8:30 Empire State Manufacturing Survey
9:15 Industrial Production/Cap Utilization
10:00 Home Market Index
Thurs 6/16:
8:30 Weekly Claims
8:30 Housing Starts
10:00 Wholesale Trade
Fri 6/17:
9:55 Consumer Sentiment
10:00 Leading Indicators
Quadruple Witching