Guru Portfolio Updates

We’ve updated our Guru Portfolios! You can see a full list of all our portfolios here and download the latest updates from the Stock Rover Library.

Economy

The ISM® (Institute for Supply Management®) Non-Manufacturing PMI® reported in at 56.9, slightly higher than July’s 56.7 reading, this marks the second consecutive monthly increase after three months of declines. A PMI reading over 50 indicates monthly expansion in the services sector, which makes up almost two-thirds of the U.S. economy. Anthony Nieves, chair of the ISM® services business survey committee stated – “The services sector had a slight uptick in growth for the month of August due to increases in business activity, new orders, and employment”. The ISM®’s measure of new orders received by services businesses increased to 61.8 from 59.9 in July, the employment measure also moved higher to 50.2 from 49.1. The supplier deliveries index decreased to 54.5 from 58.3 in July, a reading of above 50 percent indicates slowing deliveries. The prices index, which is a gauge of what services industries pay for inputs declined for the fourth consecutive month to 71.5.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in its September 2022 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) that it expects higher-than-average natural gas prices globally. The U.S. natural gas spot price at the Henry Hub is expected to reach a monthly average of $9.10 per million British thermal units in January 2023, the highest inflation-adjusted monthly average price since 2008. “There are limited options for replacing natural gas in the short term, especially for electricity generation,” said EIA Administrator Joe DeCarolis. “We expect electricity producers—particularly in Europe—will have to generate some electricity from oil-based fuels this winter.” EIA forecasts U.S. natural gas inventories will be 7% below their previous five-year average at the end of October. The EIA expects that U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will reach 11.01 billion cubic feet per day bcfd in 2022 and 12.34 bcfd in 2023, up from a record 9.76 bcfd in 2021. Oil prices are predicted to remain somewhat the same for the rest of the year. Crude production is projected to increase to 11.79 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 and 12.63 million bpd in 2023, this is up from 11.25 million bpd in 2021. U.S. coal production is expected to rise to 600 million short tons in 2022, up from 578 million short tons in 2021.

The Labor Department reported a decrease in initial jobless claims for the week ending September 3rd. This marks the fourth straight week of decrease. The seasonally adjusted initial claims reported in at 222,000 a decrease of 6,000 from the prior week’s 228,000 (initially 232,000). The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility was 233,000 a decrease of 7,500 from the previous week’s unrevised average. On an unadjusted basis, initial claims posted the highest increases in Massachusetts (+2,955) and Oklahoma (+1,516), while New York (-3,539) and Michigan (-2,088) saw the most decreases. For the week ending August 27, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment also known as the insured unemployment rate was 1.0%, unchanged from the prior week. Continuing claims reported in at a near five-month high of 1.473M, up 36,000 from the previous week’s downwardly revised level. The continuing claims 4-week moving average was 1.439M an increase of 10,750 from the previous week’s downwardly revised level. For the week ending August 20th, 1,414,849 people were receiving jobless benefits through state or federal programs, a decrease of 23,283 from the previous week. There were 11,927,797 weekly claims filed for the comparable week in 2021.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday September 13 – CPI (MoM) (August)

Thursday September 15 – Retail Sales (MoM) (August)

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 09/09/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

How Correlation Helps You Make Better Investment Decisions

Check out our blog post “How Correlation Helps You Make Better Investment Decisions” to see how Stock Rover can help you construct portfolios with more diversification and less risk.

Economy

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index increased in August to 103.2 (1985=100), up from July’s downwardly revised 95.3. The Present Situation Index, which is based on consumers’ sentiment toward current business conditions and the labor market, increased to 145.4 from 139.7 in July. The expectations index, based on consumers’ six-month outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions also moved up to 75.1 in August from 65.6 the previous month. “Consumer confidence increased in August after falling for three straight months,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “The Present Situation Index recorded a gain for the first time since March. The Expectations Index likewise improved from July’s 9-year low, but remains below a reading of 80, suggesting recession risks continue. Concerns about inflation continued their retreat but remained elevated.” The share of consumers planning to buy major appliances, homes, cars, and spend on vacations all increased. The share of consumers that said jobs are currently plentiful reported in at 48.0% down from 49.2% the previous month. Consumers that said jobs are currently hard to get declined to 11.4% from 12.4%.

The ISM® (Institute for Supply Management®) Manufacturing PMI® for August reported in at 52.8%, as business activity expanded at the same pace as it did in July, beating most economists’ expectations. The report was mixed with the New Orders Index rising 3.3 points to 51.3%, while the New Export Orders Index was down 3.2 points to 49.4%. Production is just above contraction and prices are tumbling – with the Production Index reporting down 3.1 points to 50.4%, and the Prices Index dropping 7.5 points to 52.5% as compared to July. After three straight months of contraction, the Employment Index bounced back – expanding to 54.2%, 4.3 points higher than in July. Timothy R. Fiore, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) commented that “Manufacturing performed well for the 27th straight month. With (1) supplier delivery performance recording its fourth straight month of improvement, (2) price increase growth slowing significantly for the second consecutive month, (3) hiring and total employment both positive and expanding, and (4) lead times easing across all three categories of purchasing activity, the sector is at or approaching supply/demand equilibrium.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 315,000 jobs were added in August, as the unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.7% from 3.5% the previous month. Payrolls are now 240K jobs above pre-pandemic levels. The number of unemployed increased by 344K to 6.0M. June and July’s job gains were revised down by a total of 107K, resulting in the economy recovering the jobs lost during the pandemic occurring in August rather than July. The August increase was led by professional and business services (+68K), followed by healthcare (+48K) retail (+44K), leisure and hospitality (+31K), and manufacturing (+22K). Average hourly earnings increased 0.3% in August. At $32.36 average hourly earnings are up 5.2% from a year ago. The labor force participation rate or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one increased to 62.4% from 62.1% in July as 786K workers entered the labor force, the reading still remains below the pre-pandemic level of 63.4%.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday September 6 – ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI (August)

Wednesday September 7 – Beige Book

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 09/02/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

What are Visuals and What Can They Do

Check out a demo of a key Stock Rover feature called Visuals. You can watch the video here. For those of you who prefer to read, we have also written a blog post.

Economy

The U.S. Census Bureau reported new home sales decreased in July to 12.6% below the revised number in June. The new home sales in June were revised to down to 585,000 from 590,000. July’s seasonally adjusted rate is 511,000 units. Sales decreased in the West (-13.3%), South (-12.1%), and Midwest (-20.6%) while the Northeast increased (13.3%). The regional year-over-year figures show a decline across all the regions West (-50.3%), South (-20.8%), the Northeast (-37.0%), and Midwest (-22.9%). The median new house price is 10.7% higher than last year at $439,400, the average sale price was $546,800. There were 464,000 new homes for sale at the end of July, up from 450,000 units in June. Houses under construction made up roughly 39.3% of the July new home sales, with homes not started accounting for 32.3%, and completed homes accounting for about 28.4%.

The U.S Census Bureau reported that new orders for durable goods decreased by less than $0.1 billion to $273.5B in July, virtually unchanged from June. This slight decrease follows four consecutive monthly increases including a 2.2% increase in June. Total durable-goods orders are up 10.8% year over year. Excluding transportation, “core” durable-goods orders increased by 0.3% in July. Bookings for motor vehicles increased slightly by 0.2% after a 1.7% increase the previous month. Excluding defense, new orders increased by 1.2%. Transportation equipment decreased (-0.7%) in July and follows two consecutive monthly increases. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for business spending plans, increased 0.4% in July. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft are up 9.7% year over year. Shipments of core capital goods rose 0.2% in July after increasing 0.4% the previous month.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 3.3M barrels to 421.7M barrels (6% below the five-year average) for the week ending August 19th. Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.3M barrels per day, a decrease of 168K barrels per day as compared to the previous week’s average. Gasoline inventories decreased slightly (7% below the five-year average), and distillate inventories decreased by 0.7M barrels (24% below the five-year average). Refineries operated at 93.8% of their operable capacity, as gasoline production decreased to an average of 9.4M barrels per day. Crude oil imports came in at 6.2M barrels per day, an increase of 40K barrels per day as compared to the previous week. Crude oil imports averaged about 6.5M barrels per day over the last four weeks, 1.9% more than the same period last year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 1.4M barrels last week.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday August 30 – JOLTS Job Openings (July)

Thursday September 1 – ISM Manufacturing PMI (Aug)

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 08/26/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

Next Level Screening Using Equations

Check out our new Screener Video to see when and how to use equations to take advantage of Stock Rover’s comprehensive screening capabilities.

Economy

The U.S. Census Bureau reported housing starts dropped 9.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.446M units in July, the lowest level since February 2021. The data for June was revised up to 1.599M units from the previously reported 1.559M units. Single-family housing starts, which account for the majority share of homebuilding, fell 10.1% to a rate of 916K units, the lowest level since June 2020. Starts for housing projects with five units or more also dropped, declining 10% to a rate of 514K units. New residential building permits, a proxy for future construction, fell 1.3% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.674M units. New residential building permits are running 1.1% above their July 2021 level. Single-family permits were down 4.3% from June’s revised 970K, while multifamily permits increased 2.5% to 693K. Building permits saw increases in the Northeast (+9.3%) and Midwest (+8.1%), while the West (-12.0%) and South (-0.1%) saw declines. Single-family housing completions came in at 1.009M, 0.8% below June’s revised reading. Multifamily completions were up 6.7% to 412K. The number of houses approved for construction but not yet started increased 5.0% to 296K units, with the backlog for single-family housing increasing 2.1% to 146K.

The Commerce Department reported advance U.S. retail and food services sales were little changed at $682.8B in July, this follows a downwardly revised 0.8% gain in June. Retail sales are up 10.3% year over year. Total sales for May 2022 through July 2022 were up 9.2% year over year.  A drop in sales at service stations (-1.8%) and at auto dealerships (-1.6%.) couldn’t offset increases coming from internet (+2.7%), miscellaneous retailers (+1.5%), building supplies (+1.5%), electronics (+.0.4%), and home furnishings (+0.2%). In addition, sales declined in department stores (-0.5%) and clothing stores (-0.6%). When sales for gas stations and autos are excluded, retail sales increased 0.7%. Core retail sales, a measurement that excludes spending on autos, gasoline, building materials, and food services increased 0.8% in July. June’s core retail sales were revised to show sales increasing 0.7% instead of 0.8%.

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 5.9% in July to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.81M, down 20.2% as compared to July 2021, and a new low since May of 2020. Home sales have now dropped for six consecutive months. In a statement, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said “We’re witnessing a housing recession in terms of declining home sales and home building; however, it’s not a recession in home prices,” Sales of single-family homes fell to a 4.31M annual rate (-19.0% Y/Y) and existing condo sales dropped to a 500K annual rate (-29.6% Y/Y). Total housing inventory reported in at 1.31M, up 4.8% from June’s inventory (unchanged Y/Y). Unsold inventory is at a 3.3-month supply, up from 2.9 months in June, and 2.6 months in July 2021. Properties typically remained on the market for 14 days in July, the same as in June and down from 17 days in July 2021.  Eighty-two percent of the homes sold in July were on the market for less than a month. The median sales price of an existing home sold in July dropped to $403,800 (+10.8%Y/Y), down from the record $413,800 set in June. The median existing single-family home price was $410,600 in July (+10.6% Y/Y) while the median existing condo price was $245,900 (+9.9% Y/Y). Existing-home sales declined in all regions led by the West (-9.4%), followed by the Northeast (-7.5%), South (-5.2%), and Midwest (-3.3%).

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday August 23 – New Homes Sales (July)

Wednesday August 24 – Core Durable Goods Orders (Mom) (July)

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 08/19/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

The Power of Equations and Custom Metrics

We have written a new blog post that explains Equations and Custom Metrics. These two powerful capabilities allow you to extend Stock Rover’s screening and analytic capabilities to address even the most specific requirements. You can read the blog post here.

Economy

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the consumer price index remained unchanged in July after rising 1.3% in June. Over the last 12 months, the all items index is up 8.5% before seasonal adjustment. The unchanged value in the all items index is the result of a 7.7% decrease in the gasoline index, offset by increases in the food (1.1%) and shelter (0.5%) indexes. Energy prices are up 32.9% on a 12-month basis. Core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy costs increased a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in July, a smaller increase from the previous three months. Shelter (+0.5%), medical care (+0.4%), motor vehicle insurance (+1.3%), and new vehicles (+0.6%) all contributed. The annual rate of core CPI inflation is 8.5%, unchanged from the previous month.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 5.5M barrels to 432.0M barrels (5% below the five-year average) for the week ending August 5th. Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.6M barrels per day, an increase of 728K barrels per day as compared to the previous week’s average. Gasoline inventories increased by 5.0M barrels (6% below the five-year average), and distillate inventories decreased by 2.2M barrels (24% below the five-year average). Refineries operated at 94.3% of their operable capacity, as gasoline production increased an average of 10.2M barrels per day. Crude oil imports came in at 6.2M barrels per day, a decrease of 1.2M barrels per day as compared to the previous week. Crude oil imports averaged about 6.5M barrels per day over the last four weeks, 0.9% more than the same period last year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 13.0M barrels last week.

The Labor Department reported an increase in initial jobless claims for the week ending August 6th. The seasonally adjusted initial claims reported in at 262,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The four-week moving average was 252,000 an increase of 4,500 from the previous week’s revised average. Connecticut (+4,790) and Oklahoma (+997) led the increase in initial claims, while Massachusetts (-14,256) and Kentucky (-2,201) saw the most decreases for the week ending July 30th. For the week ending July 30th, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment also known as the insured unemployment rate was 1.0%, unchanged from the prior week. Continuing claims were reported in at 1.428M an increase of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The continuing claims 4-week moving average was 1,399,250, an increase of 23,750 from the previous week’s revised level. For the week ending July 23rd, 1.478M people were receiving jobless benefits through state or federal programs, an increase of 9,206 from the previous week’s level. There were some 12.055M weekly claims filed for the comparable week in 2021.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday August 16 – Building Permits (July)

Wednesday August 17 – Retail Sales (MoM) (July)

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 08/12/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

Next Level Screening Using Equations

Check out our new Screener Video to see when and how to use equations to take advantage of Stock Rover’s comprehensive screening capabilities.

Economy

The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS reported 10.7 million job openings as of the last day of June, a decline from May’s 11.3M. This marks the third straight monthly decline and the largest since April 2020. Industries contributing to the decrease were retail trade (-343,000), wholesale trade (-82,000), and state and local government education (-62,000). Construction, which is sensitive to interest rates, saw job openings decrease (-71,000). There were also declines in manufacturing (26,000) and leisure and hospitality (91,000). Job openings were little changed in professional and business services, and ticked up in financial activities (+8,000). The number of people who quit their jobs for other opportunities remained steady at 4.2M and 2.8%. Quits decreased in construction (-51,000). Quits increased in state and local government education (+14,000). Layoffs were little changed at 1.3M and 0.9%. Layoffs remain low in industries such as Retail Trade and Transportation & Warehousing, while the information sector, which includes the tech industry saw an increase. The number of hires dropped slightly to 6.4M from 6.5M in May. The hires rate was unchanged at 4.2%.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that US commercial crude oil stockpiles increased by 4.5M barrels to 426.6M barrels (7% below the five-year average) for the week ending July 29th. Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.9M barrels per day, a decrease of 174K barrels per day as compared to the previous week’s average. Gasoline inventories increased by 0.2M barrels (3% below the five-year average), and distillate inventories decreased by 2.4M barrels (25% below the five-year average). Refineries operated at 91.0% of their operable capacity processing 15.9 million barrels per day. Gasoline production decreased averaging 9.3M barrels per day. Crude oil imports came in at 7.3M barrels per day, an increase of 1.2M barrels per day as compared to the previous week. Crude oil imports averaged about 6.7M barrels per day over the last four weeks, 1.7% more than the same period last year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 3.5M barrels last week.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 528,000 jobs were added in July, as the unemployment rate declined slightly to 3.5% following four consecutive months at 3.5% – with 5.9M unemployed. The U.S. economy has now replaced all of the jobs that were lost in the early months of the pandemic. February 2020’s pre-pandemic reading was 3.5% with 5.7M unemployed. June’s payrolls were revised up to 398,000 over the previously reported 372,000 jobs. The July increase in payrolls was broad-based with gains in leisure and hospitality added (+96K), professional and business services (+89K), health care (+70K), government (+70K), construction (+32K), and manufacturing (+30K). Private sector jobs are up (+629K) over February 2020, while government employment is down (-597K). Average hourly earnings increased 0.5% in July. At $32.27 average hourly earnings are up 5.2% from a year ago. The labor force participation rate or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one edged down to 62.1% from 62.2% in June.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Wednesday August 10 – Consumer Price Index (MoM) (July)

Thursday August 11 – Initial Jobless Claims

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 08/05/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

New Features Added to Stock Rover V8

We have updated Stock Rover V8 with refinements that make for more efficient navigation. In addition, there are enhancements to the Dashboard, new capabilities in the management and tracking of Portfolios, and updates to the Screener Manager and the Alerts facility. You can read more about these updates in our latest blog post.

Economy

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index declined in July to 95.7, down 2.7 points from 98.4 in June. The Present Situation Index, which is based on consumers’ sentiment toward current business conditions and the labor market, decreased to 141.3 from 98.4 in June. “Consumer confidence fell for a third consecutive month in July,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “The decrease was driven primarily by a decline in the Present Situation Index—a sign growth has slowed at the start of Q3. The Expectations Index held relatively steady, but remained well below a reading of 80, suggesting recession risks persist. Concerns about inflation—rising gas and food prices, in particular—continued to weigh on consumers.” The expectations index, based on consumers’ six-month outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions ticked down to 65.3 in July from 65.8 the previous month. The share of consumers that said jobs are currently plentiful down to 50.1% down from 51.5%. Consumers that said jobs are currently hard to get bumped up to 12.3% from 11.6%.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that new orders for manufactured durable goods increased 1.9% to a seasonally adjusted $272.6 billion in June. The increase followed a 0.8% increase in May. A primary contributor to the increase was transportation equipment up 5.1% to 92.7. On a year-over-year basis, new orders for manufactured durable goods grew 11.1%. Ex-defense orders rose 0.4% month over month, while ex-transportation orders also rose 0.3%. Core capital goods orders, which exclude the volatile aircraft and defense orders increased by 0.1%, this followed a 0.9% increase in May. Core durable goods shipments increased 0.3% in June, this followed a 1.5% increase in May, and are up 11.7% year over year. Total durable-goods orders are up 11.3% from a year ago.

The first estimate of GDP for 2022 Q2 reported a 0.9% decrease and follows a 1.6% 2022 Q1 decrease. Decreases in private inventory investment, residential fixed investment, federal government spending, state and local government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment all contributed to the decline. Inventories which helped boost GDP in 2021 were a big factor, reducing the GDP by 2 percentage points. A decrease in retail trade, primarily across general merchandise stores and motor vehicle dealers, pulled down inventory investment. Residential investment dropped 14%. Government spending across state, federal, and local governments declined 1.9%. Business investment fell 0.1% due to decreases in structures and equipment spending. Partially offsetting the Q2 decrease were increases in exports (+18.0) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE). Consumer spending which accounts for roughly two-thirds of domestic activity increased an inflation adjusted 1%, a decline from Q1’s +2.7%. Spending on services increases (+4.1%) but was offset by declines in nondurable goods (-5.5%) and durable goods (-2.6%).

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday August 2 – JOLTs Job Openings (Jun)

Friday August 5 – Unemployment Rate (Jul)

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 07/29/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

New Watchlists – July 2022

We created a new set of watchlists that contain some interesting investment candidates. You can read about each of the new watchlists in our latest blog post. There are also a companion set of screeners associated with each of the watchlists. Any of the new watchlists or screeners can be imported into your Stock Rover account from the Stock Rover Investor’s Library.

Economy

The U.S. Census Bureau reported housing starts dropped 2.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.559M units in June, the lowest level since September 2021. The data for May was revised up to 1.591M units from the previously reported 1.549M units. Single-family housing starts, which account for the majority share of homebuilding, fell 8.1% to a rate of 982K units. Meanwhile starts for housing projects with five units or more increased 15% to a rate of 568K units. New residential building permits, a proxy for future construction, fell 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.685M units. New residential building permits are running 1.4% above their June 2021 level. Single-family permits were down 8.0% from May’s revised 1.051M, while multifamily permits increased 13.1% to 666K. Building permits saw increases in the Northeast (+18.0%) and West (+5.8%), while the Midwest (-15.7%) and South (-2.1%) saw declines. Single-family housing completions came in at 996K, 4.1% below May’s reading. Multifamily completions were down 5.4% to 366K. The number of houses approved for construction but not yet started increased 1.1% to 285K units, with the backlog for single-family housing dropping 1.3% to 147K.

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 5.4% in June to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.12M, down 14.2% as compared to June 2021, and a new low since June of 2020. Home sales have now dropped for five consecutive months. Sales of single-family homes fell to a 4.57M annual rate (-12.8% Y/Y) and existing condo sales dropped to a 550K annual rate (-9.8% Y/Y). Total housing inventory reported in at 1.26M, up 9.6% over May’s inventory (+2.4% Y/Y). Unsold inventory is at a 3.0-month supply, up from 2.6 months in May and 2.5 months in June 2021. Properties typically remained on the market for 14 days, down from May’s 16 days reading. Eighty-eight percent of the homes sold in June were on the market for less than a month. The median sales price of an existing home sold in June set yet another record at $416,000 (+13.4%Y/Y). The median existing single-family home price was $423,300 in June (+13.3% Y/Y) while the median existing condo price was $354,900 (+11.5% Y/Y). Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast were unchanged while the Midwest (-1.6%), West (-11.1%), and South (-6.2%) all saw declines.

The Labor Department reported an increase in initial jobless claims for the week ending July 16th. This marks the third straight week of increase and the highest level in 8-months. The seasonally adjusted initial claims reported in at 251,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility was 240,500 an increase of 4,500 from the previous week’s upwardly revised average. Massachusetts (+14,136) and California (+3,815) led the increase in initial claims, while New York (-7,059) and Ohio (-3,752) saw the most decreases. For the week ending July 9th, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment also known as the insured unemployment rate was 1.0%, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. Continuing claims were reported in at 1.384M down 51,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised level. The continuing claims 4-week moving average was 1,353,250, an increase of 13,250 from the previous week’s upwardly revised level.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday July 26 – CB Consumer Confidence (July)

Wednesday July 27 – Fed Interest Rate Decision

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 07/22/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

New Features Added to Stock Rover V8

We have updated Stock Rover V8 with refinements that make for more efficient navigation. In addition, there are enhancements to the Dashboard, new capabilities in the management and tracking of Portfolios, and updates to the Screener Manager and the Alerts facility. You can read more about these updates in our latest blog post.

Economy

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the consumer price index rose 1.3% in June and follows a 1.0% increase in May. Over the last 12 months, the all items index is up 9.1% before seasonal adjustment, the fastest rate since 1981. Nearly half the all times increase is attributable to a 7.5% increase in the energy index, which followed a 3.9% reading in May. Energy prices are up 41.6% on a 12-month basis. Increases in the indexes for shelter (+0.6%), gasoline (+11.2%), and food (+1.0%) were the largest contributors to the seasonally adjusted all items increase. The rise in all items was broad-based with the indexes for motor vehicle repair (+2.0%), apparel (+0.8%), household furnishings and operations (+0.4%), and recreation (+0.3%) all seeing increases in June. A few indexes declined in June including lodging away from home (-2.8%) and airline fares (-1.8%). Core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy costs increased a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in June, up from May’s 0.6% reading. Shelter (+0.6%), used cars and trucks (+1.6%), medical care (+0.4%), motor vehicle insurance (+1.9%), and new vehicles (+0.7%) all contributed. The annual rate of core CPI inflation is 5.9%, down from 6.0% in May. March’s 6.5% core CPI inflation rate was the highest reading since August 1982.

The Labor Department reported an increase in initial jobless claims for the week ending July 9^th. This marks the second straight week of increase. The seasonally adjusted initial claims reported in at 244,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility was 235,750 an increase of 3,250 from the previous week’s unrevised average. New York (+10,209) and Kentucky (+3,091) led the increase in initial claims, while New Jersey (-3,466) and California (-2,961) saw the most decreases. For the week ending July 2nd, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment also known as the insured unemployment rate was 0.9%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. Continuing claims were reported in at 1.331M down 41,000 from the previous week’s downwardly revised level. The continuing claims 4-week moving average was 1,339,500, a decrease of 5,250 from the previous week’s downwardly revised level. For the week ending June 25th, 1.400M people were receiving jobless benefits through state or federal programs, an increase of 72,504, from the previous week’s level. There were some 13.815M weekly claims filed for the comparable week in 2021.

The Commerce Department reported advance U.S. retail and food services sales increased 1.0% to $680.6B in June, this follows an upwardly revised 0.1% decline in May. Retail sales are not adjusted for inflation which rose 1.3% on a monthly basis, this means real retail sales actually declined slightly. Retail sales are up 8.4% year over year. Total sales for April 2022 through June 2022 were up 8.1% year over year. Contributing to the increase were sales at gasoline stations (+3.6%), online sales (+2.2%), furniture and home (+1.4%), and restaurants and food service (+1.0%). Sales were down at building material and garden stores (-0.9%) and clothing accessory stores (-0.4%). When sales for gas stations and autos are excluded, retail sales increased 0.7%. Core retail sales, a measurement that excludes spending on autos, gasoline, building materials, and food services increased 0.8% in June. May’s core retail sales were revised down to show sales dropping 0.3% instead of being unchanged.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Tuesday July 19 – Building Permits (MoM) (June)

Thursday July 21 – Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (July)

Earnings Calendar:

The post Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 07/15/2022 appeared first on Stock Rover.

You’ll get these changes automatically when you log into Stock Rover.

Start Menu Changes

We have changed the grey Start Menu bar. It is more logically arranged and easier to use. Specifically, we have done some regrouping and relabeling of the menu items and the section headings.

The screenshot below shows the new Start menu bar. The paragraphs following the screenshot describe the changes relative to the old menu.

Research

The first change is that the most common research functions are grouped under the heading Research.

Research is where investment investigation and analysis is conducted for tickers that are selected from the associated Screeners, Portfolios, Watchlists, or the Quotes list. In Research you are typically performing research on specific tickers or performing a comparative analysis between tickers.

Table – provides a flexible spreadsheet-like paradigm for comparing tickers and their data.

Chart – chart price, chart over 100 fundamentals, chart key technical indicators, valuation, and much more.

Insight – contains multiple tools for researching stocks in depth.

Stock Ratings – perform a detailed analysis of a company’s performance across multiple dimensions of performance vs. its industry group peers.

My Collections

Formerly called Management, this section is where functions specific to Screeners, Portfolios, and Watchlists are performed. This generally means creation, updating or deletion operations.

For example the Screener menu item would be used to alter a screener’s filtering criteria. Other examples of management would be updating a Portfolio’s holdings, or creating a Watchlist.

In addition, there is a new menu item called Portfolio Tools. When Portfolio Tools is selected, the Start Menu expands to expose quick access to an additional toolset that is unique to portfolios. Each of the tools is briefly described below.

Analytics – enhanced in Stock Rover V8 – analyze the overall performance of your portfolio as well as the performance of the individual holdings.

Brokerage Connection – connect to your brokerage firm(s) via Yodlee, a trusted cloud-based account aggregator.

Correlation – shows the correlation between all the individual holdings.

Future Income – enhanced in Stock Rover V8 – project your future dividend income on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.

Future Simulations – new to Stock Rover V8 – tests long-term expected portfolio growth under a variety of possible scenarios based on Monte Carlo simulation.

Rebalancing – enhanced in Stock Rover V8 – rebalance your portfolio as well as perform explicit trade planning.

More Tools

The section combined the two sections More Goodies and Resources together.

Alerts – receive a text or email alert when something happens in the market of interest to you.

Earnings Calendar – see when companies will report their earnings.

Ideas – tips and tools we think will be helpful for our customers.

Library – a repository of a variety of different investment research resources that can be imported into your Stock Rover account

Metric Browser – a fast and easy way to see all of the metrics available in Stock Rover.

Help

The Help has been moved to the pull-down under your Stock Rover username.

Dashboard

The big change to the Dashboard is that it now includes a new Holdings Map, which is described below.

In addition, Premium and Premium Plus users can now access Portfolio Analytics and the Future Income tool directly from inside the Dashboard.

Holdings Map

The new Holding Map in the Dashboard displays a value-based heat map for the selected Portfolios.

The heat map shows Portfolio tickers grouped by sector. By default, the tiles are sized based on value and will show as green when the value has increased or red when the value has decreased over the selected time period.

Users can also select the tiles to be sized uniformly within each sector by selecting “Uniform”.

As highlighted in the screenshot above, Premium and Premium Plus users can access the Portfolio Analytics tool directly from the Dashboard Holding’s Map by clicking on “Analytics” in the Holdings Map header bar.

When you mouse over a tile, the tooltip will display value detail for the holding.

In the example below, the Dashboard is showing the change in Portfolio value over a 10-day period of time, the Home Depot tile showed red and we’ve moused over for more detail.

Portfolio Charting

Premium and Premium Plus users can now access Portfolio Analytics directly from the Dashboard by clicking on “Analytics”.

Future Projected Income

Premium and Premium Plus users can now directly access the Future Projected Income tool from the Dashboard by clicking on “Full Details”.

The Future Projected Income Tool projects your future dividend income on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis for the portfolios you select. The expected dividend income is computed from the individual stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds you own. You can view the income at the Summary, Portfolio, and Holdings level.

Portfolios

We’ve made it easier to update misidentified symbols in linked Portfolios. In addition, Trade Planning and Rebalancing now supports the saving of Model Portfolios. There is also new export option that allows you to export portfolio positions and transactions as a .CSV file.

Correcting Misidentified Symbols

Stock Rover can optionally connect to your brokerage firm(s) via Yodlee, a trusted cloud-based account aggregator. When you connect your Stock Rover account to your brokerage accounts, details for each portfolio are delivered to Stock Rover and regularly updated.

In the event that Yodlee makes an error and classifies a known ticker as an asset, or assigns the wrong ticker symbol you can now correct the misidentified symbol.

From Portfolio Manager select the Portfolio and then go to the Positions tab.

To make a change, highlight the misidentified ticker and scroll to the right to the new ‘Corrections’ column, then click the edit button.

A popup will appear where you can then enter the corrections under “Corrected Values:”. Once the changes are saved, the correction(s) will take effect immediately and the Portfolio screen will then refresh with the corrected values.

Trade Planning and Rebalancing

Trade Planning and Rebalancing allows you to test potential trades. Based on your planning decisions, an alternative version or model of your portfolio is created, You can then compare the planned or model portfolio against your actual portfolio across a number of key analytics such as historical return, maximum drawdown, risk-adjusted return vs. the S&P 500, correlation with the S&P 500, beta, volatility, and the Sharpe ratio.

A new option has been added to Trade Planning and Rebalancing so that you can save the planned or model portfolio. Once saved, you can then reference the newly created portfolio just as any other portfolio – in both Portfolios and Portfolio Tools.

To save the model portfolio, complete your trade and rebalancing exercise, then select the “More” pull-down and click on “Save the Model as a New Portfolio”.

You can then name the newly created model portfolio and specify the buy date for the trades made as part of the planning exercise.

Export

The “Export” option allows you to export a portfolio’s positions or transactions into a .CSV file. The export is based on what positions or transactions are currently loaded in the Portfolios Table.

Positions

Selecting the “Export” button will create a .CSV file that mirrors what is loaded in the Table. Below we selected the date pull-down and chose to display a portfolio’s positions as of July 13, 2022.

Here are the results from the export.

Transactions

Selecting the “Export” button will create a .CSV file with the portfolio’s selected transactions. In the example below we selected “ALL” as we wanted to export portfolio transactions for all time periods. We could have selected to go back only 1-Month in which case our Table and the ensuing export would return the transactions generated over the last month.

You can optionally select the filter icon next to a ticker to load the Table with the transactions for the selected ticker only. Clicking on “Export” will then return only the transactions for that selected ticker.

Here are the results from the export.

Portfolio Tools

There are a number of enhancements and new capabilities that help with the management and tracking of Portfolios.

Collapsible Portfolio Navigation Pane

Simply click on the icon in the navigation pane to toggle between expanding and collapsing the Portfolio navigation pane. The example below shows the control while in Portfolio Analytics.

This feature is especially helpful when running Stock Rover on smaller screens.

Portfolio Analytics

The Portfolio Analytics tool has undergone several improvements. There are two new charts that show price change and value over time. There are also a few new metrics metrics, as well as a new configurable Holdings Map which displays holdings detail as a heat map.

Value Over Time Tab

Two new columns have been added to the value over time table. The new columns are highlighted in the screenshot below.

• Time Weighted Return (%) – Time weighted return is shown by portfolio in the Chart. It is like a stock or fund return in that it is computed from the daily returns without adjusting for changes in total portfolio value over time from inflows and outflows.
• Timing – Shows how many percentage points your personal return was increased by having more funds invested on bullish periods than during bearish ones.

The Value Over Time Tab also gets two new charts.

Price Change Chart

The Price Change chart is located at the top of the charting pane and is calculated based on the weighted average performance of the portfolios’ holdings each day over the selected period of time. A sample chart is shown below.

The Benchmarks pull-down includes popular benchmarks and any benchmark used by a portfolio that you would like to include in the chart. Our example is charting the S&P500 along with the Portfolios.

Selecting “Chart Each” controls whether each portfolio is charted individually or whether they are all charted as a single portfolio. When charting all portfolios as a single portfolio the calculation is based on the weighted average performance of all the portfolios’ holdings each day.

Mousing over the chart will show the price change values next to the Portfolio labels located at the top of the chart. In our example, we moused over Tuesday April 26th and the values have been updated next to the Portfolio labels to reflect the price change from June 30, 2020 to April 26, 2022.

Value Over Time Chart

The Value Over Time chart, is the area chart located at the bottom of the charting pane and displays a stacked area graph where each colored area represents a specific portfolio and its value over time. The chart factors in inflows, outflows and the underlying change in the value of the investments themselves.

Mousing over a specific point in the graph will display the dollar value for the portfolio and day selected. Below we see we’ve selected to display the 20 Top ESG Companies’ portfolio value as of December 31, 2021.

Risk and Reward Tab

The Risk and Reward tab shows the amount of risk you took to achieve your return.

Risk and Reward now displays the Price Change and Value Over Time charts described in the previous section.

Holdings Detail Tab

The Holdings Detail tab shows the contribution of the different holdings of the portfolio to overall portfolio return. It will include any holdings you held during the period of reporting, not just the current holdings. There are several noteworthy changes. They are as follows.

The new “Include Closed Positions” selection allows you to control whether closed positions are included as part of the analytics.

New columns have been added to the holdings detail table. They are as follows.

• Unrealized Gain at Start – The difference between the holding value at the start of the reporting period and the cost basis.
• Unrealized Gain at End – The difference between the holding value at the end of the reporting period and the cost basis.
• Realized Gain – The dollar gain that was realized over the reporting period by selling shares for more than their original cost.
• Value Change(%) – The simple percentage change between the holding’s ending value and its starting value.
• Time Weighted Return (%) – Time weighted return is shown by portfolio in the Chart. It is like a stock or fund return in that it is computed from the daily returns without adjusting for changes in total portfolio value over time from inflows and outflows
• Timing – Shows how many percentage points your personal return was increased by having more funds invested on bullish periods than during bearish ones.

The Holdings Detail tab also sports a new Holdings Map that displays a heat map of the selected Portfolios.

The heat map displays the Portfolio tickers grouped by sector. By default, the tiles are sized based on the holding’s end value. The tile will show as green when the value has increased and red when the value has decreased over the selected the reporting period.

You can also tailor the heat map and configure the criteria for sizing and coloring the tiles.

Size:

• End Value (this is the default)
• Average Value
• Change($)
• Total Gain/loss($)
• Uniform – sizes the tiles uniformly

Color:

• ROI%
• IRR%
• Change($)
• Total Gain% (this is the default)
• Value Change%

Mousing over the ticker displays additional detail.

Future Income

The Future Income tool has been enhanced to handle portfolios with mixed USD and CAD currency.

The Future Income Tool projects your future dividend income on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis for the portfolios you select. The tool can show income at the Summary, Portfolio, and Holdings level.

The “Default” Currency setting will display the income using the currency of the stocks’ exchange. If you have a mix of USD and CAD stocks in the portfolio(s) then the Future Income will be displayed in mixed currency.

The currency setting allows you to view the income values in your Portfolio using the Base currency, USD, or CAD. Selecting USD displays all dividend income in USD, while CAD displays all dividend income in CAD.

Our blog post Currency Conversion in Stock Rover shows how Stock Rover displays mixed currencies and demonstrates ways to effectively leverage the platform for multi-currency research and analytics.

Future Simulations

The new Future Simulations tool tests long-term expected portfolio growth under a variety of possible scenarios based on the Monte Carlo method. The Monte Carlo method uses random samplings of what has happened in the past in order to create future scenarios.

Our blog post Introducing Future Simulations explains how to configure the tool and interpret the results.

Screeners

You can now narrow down the universe of Stocks to include just preferred stocks. In addition the Screener Manager now supports the reordering of filtering criteria.

Screening on Preferred Stocks

In addition to the universe of Stocks and ETFs, the Screener Manager now supports selecting “Preferred” to filter through the Universe of Preferred Stocks.

Changing filter criteria order

You can now reorder the filter criteria in the Screener Manager via the up / down icons under the Move column. Simply select the filter you want to move and click the move up or move down icon.

This new capability enables you to order the list of filtering criteria based on the commonality you feel is appropriate.

Alerts

The Alerts facility allows you to receive a text or email alert when something happens in the market of interest to you.

New Alerts

Two new alerts have been added to the Alerts facility. The first alert allows you to trigger based on the price / sales ratio going above or below a threshold value. The second new alert allows you to be notified when the dividend yield exceeds or falls below a specific value.

Summary

We hope that these latest refinements and additions help you to take better advantage of Stock Rover’s many capabilities.

The post New Features Added to Stock Rover V8 appeared first on Stock Rover.