Trade Deficit Narrows
Stocks spent most of the day going back and forth deciding if the future was as bleak as it looks – and it is. However, the market will decide more of that tomorrow. Bonds went sideways.
The Dollar gained against the Euro, but not anything else, as markets are betting the Euro countries will be reducing interest rates soon. Gold moved sideways.
Oil went sideways, but gasoline went up a lot. This continues to be a totally irrational gasoline market, and has “manipulation” written all over it.
In the news today….
The US Trade Deficit narrowed significantly in November – down 28.7% from the previous month. The trade deficit was $40.4B for November. This was due to the decrease in oil prices mostly, but also included decreases in imports with little decrease in exports (only down 5.9%). The trade deficit with China decreased 17.5% to $23.1B. It is interesting to note that the trade deficit with China is more than half of our trade deficit.
There is still no natural gas flowing from Russia through Ukraine to Europe. This continues to be a worrying issue. I hope this goes away soon with some sort of agreement among the parties involved.
Here are Today’s numbers:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8449 (down 25 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 2.30% (down 0.01%)
Euro – $1.3192
Gold – $821 (no change)
Oil – $37.78 (up $0.19)
Gasoline – $1.15 (up $0.06) – totally irrational today.
