Retail earnings unable to boost stocks, UK inflation hits highest level since 2011, target earnings, mixed housing data, bitcoin hovers ~$60K

Decent retail earnings were unable to send US stocks back into a record-setting mode as cost pressures remain elevated for the foreseeable future. The S&P 500 index looks like it is going to be stuck in a range until investors feel confident that the Fed didn’t make a policy mistake and won’t be forced to raise rates sooner.

Another round of Fed speak from Williams, Waller, and Mester did not provide any shifts over where the board stands on inflation.

It wasn’t pretty, but the 20-year auction performed better than last week’s disappointing 30-year sale.  The 10-year Treasury yield dipped to session lows after the decent 20-year sale, down 3.3 basis points to 1.601%.

FX

The British pound was the second strongest currency next to the yen as pressure for BOE tightening grew after UK inflation hit the highest levels in a decade. Inflation is getting worse for the UK and given their inability to store gas, the economy is extremely vulnerable to surging natural gas prices. Inflation expectations are for higher prices over the coming months so that should raise expectations for a December rate hike by the BOE.

Target

The bar may have been too high for big-box retailers. Target delivered decent results but fell short of impressing the street. Target posted a 20-cent earnings beat, better-than-expected revenue by a billion dollars.  Third-quarter operating margin came in at 7.8%, lower than the 8.5% seen a year ago.

Walmart and Target have had good runs since March, but margin pressure is only going to get worse over these next few months and that has some investors rotating out of retail despite what is expected to be a very strong holiday season.

Housing

Housing starts unexpectedly dipped in October, but the market still remains strong as building permits increased 4.0% to 1.650 million units.  US homebuilding is still battling higher material costs and labor shortages.  Demand is still strong for homes despite elevated lumber and copper prices. If Treasury yields continue to rise, that could be the catalyst to cool the hot housing market.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin continues to consolidate around the USD 60,000 level as other parts of the cryptocurrency world grapple with the SEC probes.  BlockFi and other high-yielding crypto accounts may seem to be good to be true for many on Wall Street.  Given cryptocurrency performance dominance over the past few years, several lending products have provided very lucrative products that will likely go through the ringer.

Bitcoin’s long-term outlook remains bullish, but the waters over the next few months will be rough as institutional investors look to see if the Fed will be forced to raise rates sooner and trigger a broad-based selloff of risky assets that include bitcoin.

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.