U.S. stock futures are higher in pre-market trading for Friday, January 19. The Nasdaq Futures are trading at 6,845.25 for up with +0.47% percent or +32.25 point.The S&P 500 Futures are trading at 2,803.50 for up with +0.26% percent or +7.50 point.The Dow Futures are trading at 26,022.00 for up with +0.31% percent or +81.00 point.
In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 are trading at 23,808.06 for up with +0.19% percent or +44.69 point. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng are trading at 32,169.65 for up with +0.15% percent or +47.71 point. China’s Shanghai Composite are trading at 3,487.86 for up with +0.38% percent or +13.11 point. India’s BSE Sensex are trading at 35,346.90 for up with +0.25% percent or +86.61 point at 12:15 PM.The FTSE 100 are trading at 7,711.52 for up with +0.14% percent or +10.56 point. Germany’s DAX are trading at 13,397.08 for up with +0.87% percent or +115.65 point. France’s CAC 40 are trading at 5,520.77 for up with +0.47% percent or +25.94 point. The Stoxx Europe 600 are trading at 400.26 for up with +0.38% percent or +1.51 point.
Friday’s Factors and Events
At a time when most economic data points are encouraging the bulls, this morning’s housing starts number were a major disappointment. They decreased by 8.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.192 million units, a worse result than expected. That may seem to make it an odd time to recommend a couple of homebuilders’ stocks, but the reason for the decline makes a strategy shift away from a broad-based ETF in the sector towards individual companies poised to benefit from that reason a smart move.
Back in September, I recommended an investment in the homebuilders ETF, XHB. That was intended as a short-term play based on expectations for action from the Fed that month, but whether you played it that way or held on until now you would have done well on the trade.
Thursday’s Activity
U.S. market were lower on Thursday. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 26,017.81 with a loss of -0.37% percent or -97.84 point. The S&P 500 closed at 2,798.03 with a loss of -0.16% percent or – 4.53 point. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 7,296.05 with a loss of -0.03% percent or -2.23 point.
Other leading market index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,576.73 with a loss of -0.87%percent or -9.93 point; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 287.87 with a loss of -0.77% percent or -2.23 point; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closed at 22.71 with a loss of -0.39% percent or -0.09 point; the S&P 100 Index closed at 1,241.59 with a loss of -0.14% percent or -1.79 point; the Russell 3000 Index closed at 1,651.54 with a loss of -0.21% percent or -3.46 point; the Russell 1000 Index closed at 1,548.21 with a loss of -0.18% percent or -2.71 point; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index closed at 26,017.81 with a loss of -0.37% percent or +97.84 point.