Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Treasury yields have backed down some in the wake of this morning's economic data, which featured a notable deceleration in the S&P Global US Services PMI for January and a weaker-than-expected final January print for the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment.

This news, which was accompanied by an uptick in the Manufacturing PMI and some stronger-than-expected existing home sales in December, stirred some growth concerns that took a little steam out of the bull market action.

Losses, though, are modest in scope with breadth roughly even at the NYSE and Nasdaq.

The final University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment for January slipped to 71.1 (Briefing.com consensus 73.0) from the preliminary reading of 73.2. The final reading for December was 74.0. In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 79.0.

The key takeaway from the report is that sentiment weakened as concerns about unemployment and inflation picked up.

Existing home sales increased 2.2% month-over-month in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.24 million (Briefing.com consensus 4.21 million) from an unrevised 4.15 million in November. Sales were up 9.3% from the same period a year ago, which was the largest increase since June 2021. On an annual basis, existing home sales in 2024 (4.06 million) dropped to their lowest level in nearly 30 years at the same time the median sales price reached a record high.

The key takeaway from the report is that home sales picked up in December despite higher mortgage rates, marking the third straight month of year-over-year gains with more inventory on the market than the same period a year ago.