Weekend: Schedule for Week of February 2, 2025 ISM Manufacturing Index for January. The consensus is for the ISM to be at 49.5, up from 49.3 in December. Construction Spending for December. The consensus is for a 0.1% increase in construction spending. Light vehicle sales for January. Sales were at 16.8 million in December (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate). Wards expects vehicle sales to decrease to 15.6 million SAAR in January. Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices (SLOOS). Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures S&P 500 are down 95 and DOW futures are down 470 (fair value). WTI futures at $74.05 per barrel and Brent at $76.39 per barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $72, and Brent was at $80 - so WTI oil prices are up about 3% year-over-year. Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are at $3.05 per gallon. A year ago, prices were at $3.15 per gallon, so gasoline prices are down $0.10 year-over-year.

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From the Census Bureau reported that overall construction spending increased: Construction spending during December 2024 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,192.2 billion, 0.5 percent above the revised November estimate of $2,180.3 billion. The December figure is 4.3 percent above the December 2023 estimate of $2,101.3 billion. emphasis added Private spending increased and public spending decreased: Click on graph for larger image. Private non-residential (blue) spending is at a new peak. The second graph shows the year-over-year change in construction spending. private residential construction spending is up 6.0%. Private non-residential spending is up 2.3% year-over-year. Public spending is up 4.3% year-over-year. This was above consensus expectations and spending for the previous two months was revised up.

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From STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 25 January As expected with the MLK Day holiday, the U.S. hotel industry reported mixed year-over-year comparisons, according to CoStar’s latest data through 25 January. ... 119-25 January 2025 (percentage change from comparable week in 2024): Occupancy: 54.3% (-3.4%) emphasis added The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average. Click on graph for larger image. The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is tracking both last year and the median rate for the period 2000 through 2024 (Blue). Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change. This is the weakest period of the year for hotel occupancy and the 4-week average will increase seasonally for the next few months.