Last week was a relatively slow time period for data releases. Markit’s preliminary January PMI data came in, showing US Manufacturing still in expansionary territory (still contradicting the ISM’s survey), though it slightly decreased from 52.4 to 51.7 and came in a bit below expectations. The services sector continued to hum along with a slight beat compared to expectations as it increased to 53.2, versus 52.8 last month. Next week we have the first Q4 GDP report coming for additional information. We mentioned in last week’s post that strong new housing starts were reported in December, and the strength carried over into the existing home sales as well, with existing home sales rising 3.6% in December. This is a 10.8% year-over-year increase and helped push the mortgage market to its largest year since 2006 with lenders extending $2.4T in loans in 2019. Jobless claims slightly increased to 211K, compared to 204K last week. Throughout 2019 claims have bounced in the 200K-250K range, similar to last year and after a long, steady decline since the global financial crisis. Helios Quantitative Research is a dba of Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor. This commentary on this website reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints and analyses of the Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC employees providing such comments, and should not be regarded as a description of advisory services provided by Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC or performance returns of any Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC Investments client. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change at any time without notice. Nothing on this website constitutes investment advice, performance data or any recommendation that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Any mention of a particular security and related performance data is not a recommendation to buy or sell that security. Clear Creek Financial Management, LLC manages its clients’ accounts using a variety of investment techniques and strategies, which are not necessarily discussed in the commentary. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
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