* Major U.S. indexes modestly higher; small caps outperform
* Materials lead S&P sector gainers; Comm Svcs weakest group
* Euro STOXX 600 index up ~0.4%
* Dollar, bitcoin down; gold, crude rise
* U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield ~1.27%
July 29 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com
GDP, JOBLESS CLAIMS, PENDING HOME SALES: TOEING THE POWELL LINE (1055 EDT/1455 GMT)
Data released on Thursday dutifully affirmed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's assertion that while the U.S. economy is on track to full recovery from the shortest recession in history, we're not quite there yet.
The U.S. economy grew at a 6.5% quarterly annualized rate in the second quarter according to the Commerce Department's first stab at the data , coming in well below the 8.5% analysts hoped for.
Still, it shows a solid quarter of growth - and an acceleration from the 6.3% January-to-March expansion - fueled in large part by an American consumer flush with stimulus and savings.
The data "marks a key milestone in the recovery as the US economy more than recouped the output lost during the coronavirus recession and likely reached peak growth," writes Lydia Boussour, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. "The peak may be behind us, but we expect the economy to carry strong momentum into 2022."
Robust business investment also boosted the headline, which was nevertheless held back by net trade and inventories. A 9.8% drop in residential construction expenditures was also a drag (more on that later).
As always, the consumer - responsible for 70% of the economy - did most of the heavy lifting. Their spending jumped by 11.8% and contributed 7.8 percentage points to the net gain.
Calling the 11.8% figure "stellar," Boussour goes on to say that the jump in economic growth comes courtesy of "buoyant domestic demand to which supply is only slowly adjusting."
The number of U.S. workers filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits edged down by 24,000 last week to an even 400,000, according to the Labor Department.
Claims data has been volatile in recent weeks as many states led by Republican governors canceled emergency federal benefits, and as the auto industry, stricken by a chip shortage, shut plants for their annual retooling.
While any decline in weekly unemployment applications is welcome news, particularly compared with the headspinning 6.149 million in April 2020, the number continues to hover well above the 200,000 to 250,000 range associated with healthy labor market churn, adding further cred to Powell's claims that the jobs recovery is far from complete.
For context, more Americans filed initial claims last week than live in New Orleans.
"The underlying trend probably is still downwards," says Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, who adds that "though the spread of the Delta Covid variant clearly raises the risk of renewed layoffs in the leisure and hospitality sectors in the hardest-hit states, if people choose to reduce their social interactions as cases rise."
Ongoing claims , reported on a one-week lag, unexpectedly edged higher to 3.269 million, remaining at nearly double their pre-pandemic level.
Finally, remember the 9.8% drop in residential construction expenditures tucked away in the GDP report?
Among the housing market's most forward-looking indicators, pending sales of pre-owned U.S. homes unexpectedly dropped by 1.9% in June, according to the National Association of Realtors $(NAR.UK)$.
While the sector was the undisputed star during the initial stages of the economic recovery, it has increasingly become a victim of its own success.
A pandemic-driven flight to the suburbs drove demand sky-high, which in turn pushed inventories to record lows and home prices into orbit, beyond the grasp of many potential buyers.
While inventories have begun to recover, most housing indicators have come back to earth, returning to pre-COVID levels.
"Buyers are still interested and want to own a home, but record-high home prices are causing some to retreat," writes Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR.
Wall Street appears to be taking a "Goldilocks" view of the data. It's moving in the right direction, but not with a strength that is likely to prompt the Fed to shift its dovish tone.
All three U.S. stock indexes are green, with economically sensitive cyclicals, small caps and transports leading the charge.
(Stephen Culp)
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S&P 500, DOW INDUSTRIALS, HIT NEW HIGHS, NASDAQ LAGS (1004 EDT/1404 GMT)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average , and S&P 500 hit fresh intraday record highs in the early going of Thursday's session as a slate of strong corporate earnings reports and data showing a pickup in U.S. economic growth reinforced optimism around a steady post-pandemic recovery.
The Nasdaq Composite is also gaining, but is still around 0.5% shy of its 14,863.646 July 26 record-intraday high.
That said, all of the major indexes are now off their early highs.
In any event, small caps , banks , transports
, and chip stocks are among the outperformers so far, and nearly all major S&P 500 sectors are green with a slight tilt for value over growth .
Communication Services is the sole losing sector, dragged down by weakness in Facebook . . With this, the NYSE FANG+TM index is now slightly red on the day. Amazon.com is due to report quarterly numbers after the close.
Here is where markets stand in early trade:
(Terence Gabriel)
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S&P 500 AND A SWELTERING SUMMER (0900 EDT/1300 GMT)
It's been a steamy summer across the U.S. this year. That said, as July nears its close, the S&P 500 has also been running especially hot:
The benchmark index is on track to rise for a sixth straight month, which would be its longest monthly winning streak since a 6-month run of gains from April to September 2018. Once that streak ended, the SPX promptly collapsed about 20% into its late-December 2018 low.
With the recent run of gains, the monthly RSI has now risen to a sweltering 81.8, or its most overbought level since January 2018's all-time high of 94.2.
Additionally, monthly volatility close-to-close has collapsed to its lowest level since September 2018, the same month that the last six-month winning-streak ended.
Given the RSI's steamy level, a monthly down-tick that puts it back below the 70.00 overbought threshold, will likely coincide with a rise in volatility, and a return of instability.
Conversely, if the SPX can continue to advance, and the RSI challenges its all-time high, it will once again, be historically overbought. Of note, January 2018's extreme RSI reading preceded a protracted period of rising volatility.
(Terence Gabriel)
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FOR THURSDAY'S LIVE MARKETS' POSTS PRIOR TO 0900 EDT/1300 GMT - CLICK HERE:
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(Terence Gabriel is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)