Last updated: 11:00 AM EST
Stock markets have been mixed so far in today’s trading session. Earlier today, the Census Bureau released its U.S. Housing Starts Today report, which measures the year-over-year change in new housing starts in the month. In December, the number of new homes came in at 1.46 million versus expectations of 1.426 million. In addition, on a monthly basis, the number of new homes decreased by 4.3%. This follows a 10.8% increase in last month’s report.
Additionally, US building permits beat expectations, recording 1.495 million compared to expectations of 1.48 million. This was an increase from the previous month’s report, which came in at 1.467 million, equivalent to a 1.9% increase month-on-month.
In other news, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly crude oil report (CM:CL) The Inventories report, which measures the weekly change in the number of barrels of commercial crude oil held by US companies.
Compared to last week, inventories decreased by -2.492 million barrels. For reference, economists were expecting a decline of -0.313 million barrels on a weekly basis. This means that demand was stronger than expected.
First published: 4:02 AM EST
US futures were weak on Thursday as strong retail sales dampened expectations for a March interest rate cut. Futures contracts on the Nasdaq 100 index (NDX) and Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) rose 0.21% and 0.04%, respectively, at 3:32 a.m. EST, January 18, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose (DJIA) decreased by 0.03%.
Jump to key earnings releases, Truist Financial (Untie it(Fastinal Company)fast) will report on its quarterly performance later today. In a previous update, Taiwan Semiconductor Chipmaker (TSM) announced fourth-quarter results, with profits and revenue exceeding estimates.
In other corporate news, Tesla shares rose (TSLA) fell 1.2% yesterday after the electric car giant cut prices for its Model Y vehicles in Germany. And also Apple (Camel) declined after the sale of its watches equipped with blood oxygen sensors was banned. Moreover, discover financial (DFS) Shares fell 9% in after-hours trading. The credit card giant missed earnings expectations as it saw higher net debits in the quarter.
Meanwhile, oil prices were trending higher at the time of writing due to escalating tensions in the Middle East. WTI futures are higher, hovering near $73.26 per barrel as of last check.
Elsewhere, European markets opened mixed as investors weighed comments from the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Asia-Pacific markets end mixed on Thursday
Asia-Pacific indices ended today’s session mixed as traders remained concerned about China’s sluggish economic recovery and hawkish comments by Federal Reserve officials.
The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index, the Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Composite Index closed higher by 0.75%, 0.43% and 1%, respectively. Conversely, Japan’s Nikkei and Topix indexes ended down by 0.03% and 0.17%, respectively.
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