I Read The News So You Don’t Have To – Market News (Dec. 17, 2018)

by ogordained

We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!

UNITED STATES

  • Futures are up slightly but it looks like a flat open
  • P/E ratios have fallen to multi-year lows
  • Oil giants including ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell are funding a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby Congress in favor of a carbon emission tax
  • Lawmakers will be busy trying to avoid a government shutdown this week which could happen on December 21 in the absence of any agreement
  • Freight shipping activity began to slow last month, down 5.1%
  • Manufacturing output fell last month as well
  • Industrial production overall had a good month (Expected 0.3% | Actual 0.6%)

OTHER

  • Malaysian authorities have filed charges against Goldman Sachs connected with the 1MDB financial scandal
  • German indicators are in distress
    • PMI Composite Output Index = 52.2 | 48-month low
    • Services PMI Activity Index = 52.5 | 7-month low
    • Manufacturing PMI = 51.5 | 33-month low
  • Coffee futures have come tumbling down the past few weeks, reaching a new low for the year

CHINA

  • China is forcing Uighur Muslims detained in “re-education” camps to go to work in factories
    • Chinese officials say they want to transform them into disciplined worked
    • Researchers believe the camps may hold as many as 1 million of the Uighur ethnic minority
  • New home prices are still going up by 9% a year
Views:

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.