About this episode
Today was a mixed bag, where we continue to see varying results from the Dow and the Nasdaq. Some market pundits have dubbed this as value vs. growth or categorized these baskets of equities as a difference in “duration.” Regardless of how you describe it, we saw some downward pressure resulting from less-than-favorable earnings reports on a handful of large tech companies, and some continued positive momentum from the sectors leading the market on the year (Energy, Healthcare, Consumer Staples, etc.). Market Action Dow: +2.37 (0.01%) S&P: -0.74% Nasdaq: -2.04% 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.01% (-9 basis points) Top-performing sector: Energy (+1.36%) Bottom-performing sector: Communication Services (-4.75%) WTI Crude Oil: $88.12/barrel (+3.26%) Key Economic Points of the Day: The trade deficit widened in September by 5.7% (from $87.3 billion to $92.2 billion) There is a lot you could potentially dissect here, but the simplest explanation is that a strong dollar means buyers (exports) can buy less of our goods, and US purchasers (imports) can buy more goods, which expands the deficit – falling exports, rising imports. New home sales fell month over month (from 677,000 to 603,000), but we were still slightly above the average estimates of 593,000 For perspective here, new home sales peaked in August 2020 at 1.04 million Although the number of homes sold declined, the average sale price did rise from $436,800 to $470,600 (slightly below the record high of $479,800) Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com