Stocks Advance Ahead of Fed Minutes, Durable Orders Up 1%

Barry Adams
23 Nov, 2022
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street traded higher ahead of the release of minutes of the Fed's latest rate-setting policy meeting. 

Crude oil prices dropped on the worries that China demand may remain depressed after Covid infections surged in China and local authorities imposed stringent lockdowns in several cities including parts of Beijing. 

Investors also reviewed the recent price cap announcements from G7  Group on Russian oil. 

The S&P 500 index inched up 0.2% to 4,013.06 and the Nasdaq Composite index advanced 0.5% to 11,233.61. 

Crude oil declined $3.99 to $76.95 a barrel and natural gas added 46 cents to $7.26 a thermal unit. 

The yield on 2-year U.S. Treasury notes traded at 4.50%, 10-year Treasury notes eased to 3.70% and 30-year bonds inched lower to 3.76%. 

 

Durable Goods Orders Rise 

Durable goods orders rose 1% in October from September when orders rose downwardly revised 0.3%, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday. 

New orders jumped 10.9% from a year ago. 

 The orders rose the most in four months and the orders data are not adjusted for inflation. 

Volatile transportation orders gained 2.1% and military orders jumped 21.7%. 

Excluding transportation, orders increased 0.5% and excluding defense, new orders rose 0.8%, on a monthly basis and from a year ago rose 7.3% and 11.0% respectively. 

October shipments increased 0.4% from the previous month and jumped 9.7% from a year ago.  

 

New Home Sales Unexpectedly Rise In October

New home sales rose 7.5% in October from the previous month to an annual pace of 632,000 units and September sales were revised to 588,000 units.  

New home sales fell 5.8% from the 671,000 rate a year ago. 

Home sales in the Northeast soared 45.7% to 51,000 and in the South increased 16% to 399,000, outpacing the 34.2% decline to 50,000 in the Midwest and 0.8% drop to 132,000 in the West.  

The media home price increased to $397,000 and the average home price increased to $544,000. 

The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 470,000, representing a  supply of 8.9 months at the current sales rate.

 

Weekly Jobless Claims Up 

Initial jobless claims for the week ending November 19 increased to 240,00, the Department of Labor reported Wednesday. 

Continuing claims also increased to 1.551 million, highest since the first week in March.  

 

Stock Movers 

Autodesk Inc fell 5.6% to $197.16 after the architectural and engineering software developer fell short of expectations for its annual outlook. 

Autodesk said third quarter revenue increased 14% to $1.2 billion and net income rose to $198 million from $137 million or 91 cents from 62 cents a year ago.

HP Inc gained 1.1% to $29.71 after the company reported a less-than-expected decline in its latest quarterly sales. 

HP said fiscal fourth quarter revenue fell 11.2% to $14.8 billion and net income fell to breakeven from $3.1 billion or $2.71 per share a year ago.

HP said the company plans to cut global staff between 4,000 and 6,000 over the next three years.

Nordstrom Inc declined 5.9% to $21.32 after the luxury retailer reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results. 

Nordstrom third quarter revenue eased 2.9% to $3.5 billion and swung to a net loss of $20 m from a profit of $64 m or 13 cents from 39 cents a year ago.