Market Drama

Welcome to this week’s Market Drama!

• The Stock Market:
  • The S&P 500 was essentially flat, down 0.2%.
  • Nasdaq was down 0.4% for the week. 
  • Oil was up 4% for the week, 13.5% year-to-date.
    • The average price for WTI is $75 per barrel.  Big driver were production cuts announced by Saudi Arabia and Russia. 
• Macro Data:
  • Biggest indicator was CPI data.
    • Headline CPI rose 0.6% for the month of August, up 3.7 from a year ago (faster pace than July’s 3.2%).
      • Biggest headline there: oil prices affecting gasoline prices – increased 10.6% month-over-month. 
    • Core CPI went down from 4.7% year-over-year to 4.3% – deceleration of growth.
  • Retail sales numbers for August went up 0.6% month-over-month. Most of that price came from gasoline. 

Looking forward to next week:

• Housing start data for August. 
• FOMC meeting on Wednesday. 

Stay tuned for next week. 

– Andres