DJIA: 29,102.50 (+3.00%)
NASDAQ: 9,521.00 (+4.04%)
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Gold: 1,574.20 (-0.55%)
Copper: 254.90 (+1.27%)
Crude Oil: 50.42 (-2.21%)
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing is hot and the Stock Rover community has noticed.
With that in mind we have created new Model Portfolio called “20 Top ESG Companies” that you can download from the Stock Rover Investor’s Library. The portfolio consists of 20 of the top rated ESG companies that demonstrate responsible ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) practices. The companies are also available from the Investor’s Library in Watchlist form.
For you ETF and fund fans, we have also created a curated Watchlist of ETFs and funds that invest in companies that rank positively in ESG characteristics. The Watchlist is called “ESG ETFs and Funds” and it can also be downloaded from the Stock Rover Investor’s Library.
Construction spending dropped -0.2% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,327.7 billion. December’s construction spending was up +5.0% compared to December 2018, but overall spending for 2019 was -0.3% below 2018 spending. Private residential construction spending was up +1.4% for the month to a $540.7 billion rate, but was down -4.7% for the year. Private nonresidential construction was down -1.8% for the month to a $460.4 billion rate, but flat for the year. Public construction spending over the course of the full year rose +7.1% to a $328.8 billion rate, with increases noted for educational construction (+3.4% to $79.0 billion) and highway construction (+8.8% to $98.8 billion).
Imports grew by $6.4 billion (+2.7%) in December, with exports only growing by $1.3 billion (+0.8%), causing the trade deficit to widen by $5.2 billion (+11.9%) to $48.9 billion. Service exports and imports both remained relatively unchanged for the month, while import growth for crude oil ($1.7 billion) and “other goods” ($1.2 billion) narrowly exceeded crude oil exports ($1.5 billion) and “other goods” exports ($1.0 billion). Exports were dragged down by a $1.0 billion decrease in automotive exports, while imports grew for nonmonetary gold ($0.9 billion) and other petroleum products ($0.6 billion). For the year, exports were down $1.5 billion, and imports were down $12.5 billion, narrowing the yearly deficit to $616.8 billion.
There were 225,000 jobs created in January, but the the workforce participation rate grew +0.2% to 63.4% increasing the size of the labor force and pushing the unemployment rate up to +3.6%. The participation rate increase also pushed up the U-6 unemployment rate, which includes underemployed and discouraged workers, from a record low 6.7% in December to 6.9%. An annual adjustment to population estimates revised the size of the civilian labor force (-524,000), and revised the number of jobs created in 2019 downward by -507,000. Jobs were added in January for construction (+44,000), health care (+36,000), and leisure and hospitality (+36,000), while jobs were lost in manufacturing (-12,000), including a loss of 11,000 jobs in the automotive industry. Wages rose $0.07 for the month to $28.44/hour, and were up +3.1% over the last 12 months, but nonsupervisory employees wages were only up $0.03 in January to $23.87/hour.
Thursday February 13 – Consumer Price Index
Friday February 14 – Retail Sales
