STOCK MARKET NEWS: December PMI report, oil narrowly higher, gas, diesel spike

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incoming update…Breaking News Stocks kickoff new year with gainsAll three of the major U.S. averages rose as investors kicked off the New Year following the worst 12-months for stocks since 2008 and ahead of a busy week for economic data including the jobs report for December due Friday. In commodities, oil ticked lower to the $78 per barrel level. 

S P 500.$3860.77

Posted by FOX Business Team ShareFutures at a glanceTrader at New York Stock Exchange

U.S. stock futures are up ahead of the opening bell on Tuesday as oil and gold mix.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures is up roughly 139 points, or 0.42%, while the S&P and Nasdaq futures are approximately 0.47% and 0.67% higher, respectively.

Over the last month, the Dow remains off around 1.72%, the S&P is still off around 3.16% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is still roughly 6.09% lower as tech stocks struggle to hold gains.

Pre-market, shares of Meta are up approximately 1.38%, Apple is up roughly 0.68%, while Microsoft is around 0.87% in the green.  

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 1.33% to $79.19 a barrel, as gold jumped 0.82% to $1,841.10 an ounce.Posted by FOX Business Team ShareBitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin trading higher early TuesdayBitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin were all higher heading into Tuesday morning. (Getty Images)

Cryptocurrency prices were higher early Tuesday.

At approximately 4:45 a.m. ET, Bitcoin was trading at nearly $16,740 (+0.31%), or higher by $52.

For the week, Bitcoin was trading lower by nearly 1.2%. For the month, the cryptocurrency was lower by more than 2.25%.

Ethereum was trading at approximately $1,217.6 (+0.17%), or higher by about $2.1.

For the week, Ethereum was trading lower by 0.80%. For the month, it was trading lower by approximately 6%.

Dogecoin was trading at $0.071788 (+0.37%), or higher by approximately $0.000267. 

For the week, Dogecoin was lower by almost 5.45%. For the month, the crypto was lower by slightly more than 30%.Posted by FOX Business Team ShareGas, diesel prices move higher nationwideGasoline and diesel prices ticked up a notch Tuesday morning. (gasprices.aaa.com)

The price of gasoline continued to tick higher early Tuesday.

The nationwide price for a gallon of gasoline bumped up on Tuesday to $3.228. On Monday, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.216. On Sunday, the price was $3.208, according to AAA.

A year ago, the price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.288.

One week ago, a gallon of gasoline cost $3.104. A month ago, that same gallon of gasoline cost $3.425.

Gas hit an all-time high of $5.016 on June 14.

Diesel has been rising, but remains below $5.00 per gallon at $4.679.

On Monday, that same gallon of diesel cost 4.678. On Sunday, it stood at  $4.681, but that is still a far cry from the $3.571 of a year ago.Posted by FOX Business Team ShareFirst week of January a big week for economic dataA slew of economic reports are due this week with everything from jobs to manufacturing reported. (Getty Images)

A busy week of economic data kicks off with a relatively slow start on Tuesday and winds up the week with vital data on Friday. 

Beginning Tuesday at 9:45 a.m. ET, S&P Global is out with its final manufacturing PMI for December, which fell further into contraction territory in the flash reading two weeks ago (50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction; there is no Refinitiv estimate for the final reading).

In addition, Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET watch for a 0.4% slide in construction spending for the month of November.

Investors will also await the JOLTS report on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET, telling them how many job openings there were in the U.S. at the end of November.

And on Thursday payroll processing firm ADP is out with its tally of new private-sector nonfarm jobs for December at 8:15 a.m. ET, while the Labor Department posts the number of new jobless claims for the final week of 2022 at 8:30 a.m. ET. 

The first major economic report of the new year, Decembers employment data, will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday morning. The report will give investors further insight into the impact that higher borrowing costs are having on a tight labor market. 

Economists surveyed by Refinitiv say the U.S. economy likely added 200,000 new nonfarm jobs. Thats down from a stronger-than-expected tally of 263,000 in November and would mark the weakest job growth since December 2020. 

While the pace of job growth is slowing, the labor market is still tight with employers, at least those outside of the high-tech sectors, reluctant to lay off workers. The unemployment rate is anticipated to hold steady at 3.7% for the third month in a row.

For perspective, Septembers 3.5% unemployment rate, along with the pre-pandemic levels of 3.5% in January and February 2020, were the lowest since May 1969. The manufacturing sector likely added a meager 10,000 jobs in December. That would be the lowest since April 2021 and down from a disappointing 14,000 jobs the prior month. 

Private sector payrolls are anticipated to increase by 175,000, trailing Novembers gain of 221,000 and the lowest since December 2020. 

Finally, look for hourly earnings to rise 0.4% for the month and jump 5.0% from December 2021. That would be down slightly from Novembers 5.1% surge, which was well above the 4.6% forecast, but still half a percentage point below the 2-year high of 5.6% in March.Posted by FOX Business Team ShareUS stocks higher early Tuesday after a year of big declinesUS stocks climbed early Tuesday, the first day of trading after the long New Year’s holiday weekend. (Associated Press)

SymbolPriceChange%ChangeI:DJI$33,147.25-73.55-0.22SP500$3,839.50-9.78-0.25I:COMP$10,466.48-11.61-0.11

 U.S. stocks were higher early Tuesday morning ahead of the first trading day of 2023.

Coming off a year of big declines for major stock markets, traders worry the Federal Reserve and other central banks might be willing to push the world into recession to cool inflation that is at multi-decade highs.

Investors also are uneasy about the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine and China’s COVID-19 outbreaks. Almost everyone is going into 2023 with a healthy dose of trepidation, Craig Erlam of Oanda said in a report.

On Wall Street, the futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.5% ahead of 2023’s first day of U.S. trading. The S&P 500 ended 2022 down 19.4%, its biggest decline since the 2008 financial crisis.

The week’s most closely watched data point is notes from the Fed’s latest meeting due to be released Thursday. That will give traders an update on the U.S. central bank’s thinking about the possible need for more rate hikes. 

It will be followed Friday by U.S. employment data. Forecasters expect monthly job gains to decline in December, which they hope might encourage the Fed to dial back plans for more rate hikes.

But the Fed has a clear focus on keeping inflation under check, which could still leave pricing data as the key driver of market moves, Yeap Jun Rong of IG said in a report. 

Traders also are looking ahead to corporate earnings reports in mid-January. The Feds key lending rate stands at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, up from close to zero after seven increases last year.

The U.S. central bank forecasts it will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by late 2023, with no rate cut before 2024. 

Meanwhile, European and Asian shares were mixed, with Frankfurt, Shanghai and Hong Kong advancing and Seoul declining. The DAX in Frankfurt opened up 0.2% at 14,093.38 while the CAC-40 in Paris was unchanged at 6,594.63. 

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.9% to 3,116.51 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 1.8% to 20,145.29.

Japanese markets were closed. 

Seoul’s Kospi shed 0.3% to 2,218.68 after South Korea’s 2022 exports fell 9.5% from the previous year and the country recordd its biggest trade deficit ever. 

Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 lost 1.3% to 6,946.20 after Australian house prices fell 1.1% in December and an index of manufacturing activity declined. India’s Sensex gained 0.5% to 61,167.79.

Singapore declined while Bangkok and Jakarta advanced. New Zealand markets were closed.Posted by Associated Press ShareOil prices make narrow gains in early tradingOil prices were narrowly higher early Tuesday morning. (Getty Images)

Symbol PriceChange%ChangeUSO$70.111.582.31CVX$179.491.170.66XOM$110.301.101.01

Oil prices held in a narrow range on Tuesday , though the outlook for demand was clouded by a weak manufacturing activity survey from China, and a warning from the head of the International Monetary Fund that the global economy faced a tough year ahead. 

Brent crude futures recovered from their early weakness, when prices fell by $1 a barrel, rebounding to $86.29 a barrel by 0737 GMT, an increase of 38 cents, or 0.44%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $80.77 a barrel, up by 51 cents, or 0.64%. 

“This is likely (to be a) volatility play,” said head of APAC analysis at Vortexa Serena Huang. Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights in Singapore, said little had changed during the last weeks of December. “But there are a few factors in flux, major among them being the economy and China’s COVID exit, and factoring that in isn’t easy,” she added. 

The weak factory survey from China, the world’s largest crude importer and second-largest oil consumer, was a bearish factor.

The Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.0 in December from 49.4 in November. The index has stayed below the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction for five straight months.

Further darkening the outlook, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday that the United States, Europe and China – the main engines of global growth – were all slowing simultaneously, making 2023 tougher than 2022 for the global economy. 

Oil prices had settled more than 2% higher on Friday, with Brent and WTI ending 2022 up 10.5% and 6.7% on a year before, respectively. 

Societe Generale analysts said in a note dated Jan. 3 that the week that ended on Dec. 27, had seen the single largest weekly flow of funds into commodities during 2022. They said that out of $12.3 billion that flowed into commodities that week some $3.4 billion went into Brent, largely in reaction to Russia’s combative response to the EU and G7 imposed price cap on Russian crude exports to third parties. 

President Vladimir Putin banned the supply of crude and oil products from Feb. 1 for five months to nations that abided by the cap. His decree also included a clause that allowed him to overrule the ban in special cases. 

Russian crude has been diverted to India and China from Europe. Traders said Moscow planned to increase diesel exports from the Baltic sea port of Primorsk to 1.81 million tonnes in January, but exports from Tuapse were expected to fall to 1.333 million tons.Posted by Reuters Share

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