Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 4.10.15 (& bonus)

It's time for the one-page week's summary and, for the bonus this weekend, an interesting graphic I dug up showing presidential approval ratings since Eisenhower, broken down by party.  Predictably each President has gotten high ratings by their own party, considerably lower by the opposition, with Eisenhower and Kennedy being pretty high up on the ladder as having the most approval by both parties.  The disturbing trend is how much polarization has increased, especially in the last 25 years.  Food for thought.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 4.10.15

by Barry Ritholtz - April 10th, 2015, 4:00pm

Succinct Summations (for the light) week ending April 10^th:

Positives:

1. The Nikkei Index broke 20,000 for the first time in 15 years
2. Initial jobless claims 4-week moving average is at the lowest levels since 2000.
3. Markit service PMI rose to 59.2, versus the 58.6 expected.
4. U.S. equities had a nice week despite fears after last Friday’s lousy job report
5. Mortgage applications to buy rose 6.8%, the highest levels since July 2013
6. Import prices fell 0.3% m/o/m and 10.5% y/o/y.
7. Job openings rose to 5.13M, the highest since 2001.

Negatives:

1. ISM nonmanufacturing index fell to 56.5 from 56.9, still a solid number.
2. Revolving credit outstanding fell for the second straight month.
3. Germany factory orders fell 0.9% m/o/m.

Presidential job approval ratings from Ike to Obama | The Big Picture

by Barry Ritholtz - April 9th, 2015, 4:00pm

I can't say exactly why, but I find this to be an intriguing and amazing dataset:

 

Source: Pew Research