Lackluster Trading On Wall Street, Rate Path Worries Resurface

Barry Adams
29 Nov, 2022
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street traded lower for the second day this week after investors shifted focus to interest rate path and inflation data. 

Inflation data are scheduled to be released on Thursday and the PCE price index is expected to increase at least 6.0% for October month from a year ago. 

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.2% to 3,955.43  and the Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.4% to 11,007.61. 

China said it plans to accelerate vaccination of senior citizens and relax stringent lock down measures, health authorities reported today. 

Over the weekend a string of protests spread to in many cities and on university campuses against zero-Covid policies, Chinese authorities plan to find ways to coexist with the highly infectious coronavirus.  

Crude oil prices rose on speculation that China's relaxation of zero-Covid policy may revive the import of crude oil and on hopes that oil producing nations may announce a production cut at its next meeting on December 4.  

Crude oil increased 84 cents to $78.02 and natural gas was unchanged at $7.20 a thermal unit. 

The yield on 2-year U.S. Treasury notes increased to 4.47%, 10-year U.S. Treasury notes edged higher to 3.73% and 30-year Treasury bonds traded at 3.78%. 

 

Home Price Growth Slows 

Home prices declined for the third month in a row in September, S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller National index showed today.

Higher mortgage rates played a key role in lowering price appreciation and home prices eased in September 0.8% from the previous month.  

From a year ago, single-family home prices rose 10.6%, slower than 12.9% in August  across the nation.

The 20-city composite index showed price increase slowed to 10.4% from 12.6% in August.

Miami, Tampa, and Charlotte reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities in September.

Miami led the way with a 24.6% year-over-year price increase, followed by Tampa in second with a 23.8% increase, and Charlotte in third with a 17.8% increase.

All 20 cities reported lower price increases in the year ending September 2022 versus the year ending August 2022.