January 4, 2023 • Posted in Daily Bulletin

MH Daily Bulletin: January 4

News relevant to the plastics industry:

At M. Holland

  • The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes nearly $500 billion in new spending and tax breaks that will catalyze the clean energy transition, increase tax revenues and reduce healthcare costs. Dwight Morgan, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at M. Holland, recently provided insight on what the IRA includes and key considerations for the plastics industry. Click here to read the full post.

Supply

  • Oil fell 4% Tuesday, with Brent seeing the biggest decline in three months, on news of weak demand out of China.
  • In mid-morning trading today, WTI futures were down 3.6% at $74.15/bbl and Brent was down 3.6% at $79.17/bbl.
  • U.S. natural gas was trading around $4/MMBtu Tuesday, a level not seen since February on forecasts for unusually warm weather through mid-January. Futures were up 0.9% at $4.02/MMBtu in morning trading today:
Natural gas

Supply Chain

Tesla Still Dominates the U.S. EV Market

Domestic Markets

  • The U.S. reported 85,792 new COVID-19 infections and 1,126 virus fatalities Tuesday.
  • XBB, a new and highly infectious strain of Omicron, is expected to drive a new surge in U.S. COVID-19 cases after quickly surpassing 40% of all infections in the nation.
  • The U.S. manufacturing sector had almost 750,000 job openings in October, according to the latest federal data, as over 70% of firms said finding and retaining talent remains a top challenge.
  • U.S. construction spending unexpectedly rebounded by 0.2% in November, although single-family homebuilding continued to slump due to higher mortgage rates.
United States Construction Spending

International Markets

Germany Inflation Rate
Japan Manufacturing PMI

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