Personal Spending Rises 0.9%

This morning, the government said that personal spending rose by the most in nearly six years. In May, PCE jumped 0.9% which beat Wall Street’s estimates of 0.7%. Initial jobless claims rose by 3,000 but are still quite low. This is the 16th week in a row they’ve been below 300,000.

Bloomberg notes that the S&P 500 is going for its ninth-straight week without a move of more than 1%. That’s the longest streak since August 1993.

Insurance stocks are doing well thanks to the Supreme Court’s Obamacare ruling. Eli Lilly (LLY) is up 4.7% and UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is up 2.8%. On our Buy List, AFLAC (AFL) and Express Scripts (ESRX) are doing quite well today.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) is down today after its soggy earnings report, but only by 2.4%. I was afraid it might be worse.

It’s hard to provide an update on the situation in Greece as headlines are changing so quickly. The EU and Greek government haven’t yet reached a deal and time is running out. Plus, the banking system looks ever-more fragile as people pull out their money.

Posted by on June 25th, 2015 at 12:03 pm


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