Succinct Summations of Weeks Events for 11/20/15 ( + reads & El Nino)

This week's news was characterized by a rather strong vote of confidence in the economy as expressed by investors in rallying even after the Paris attacks and as expressed by the Fed in its continuing statements that the country is ready for a rate hike, that the U.S. economy is ready to stand on its own.  So below is the usual Sunday night eye-shot, with bonuses this week including a new reading list featuring articles about life before smartphones and the positive side of a rate hike.  There's also a cool little graphic that compares the 1997 El Nino with this year's and, as is clearly drawn, so far they've both been very near carbon copies of each other.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!  

Succinct Summations of Weeks Events for 11/20/15

by Barry Ritholtz - November 20th, 2015, 4:35pm

Succinct Summations for the week ending November 20th, 2015

Positives:

1. The S&P 500 gained 3.5%, its strongest week of 2015.
2. NFIB small-business index came in at 96.1, unchanged from the previous reading.
3. Headline and Core CPI were right in line with expectations, -0.2% and 0.2% m/o/m respectively.
4. The MBA Mortgage composite index rose 6.2% w/o/w, up from -1.3% previously.
5. The Philly Fed business outlook survey came in at 1.9, above expected.

Negatives:

1. Industrial production fell 0.2% m/o/m, slightly worse than expected. However, construction supplies and manufacturing rose 0.4%, snapping a two-month decline.
2. Housing starts fell 11% in October to a 1.06 mm annualized rate, below the 1.16 expected.
3. The housing market index came in at 62, slightly below expectations.
4. Empire Manufacturing Index came in at -10.74, below expectations and the fourth consecutive negative reading.
5. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort index fell for the third time in four weeks.

10 Sunday AM Reads

by Barry Ritholtz - November 22nd, 2015, 7:30am

My easy like Sunday morning reads:

• The Generation That Doesn’t Remember Life Before Smartphones (Popular Mechanics)
• Rate-Hike Certainty Sends Stocks Soaring (Barron’s)
• Is the Surge in Stock Buybacks Good or Evil? Companies are on track to purchase the highest number of their own shares since the crisis (WSJ)
• Housing Analogies, Nerd Style (Miller Samuel)
• Intel Lawsuit Questions Place of Hedge Funds in Retirement Plans (NYT) see also Why Pensions and Hedge Funds Don’t Mix (NYT)
• Faulty Assumptions (Wealth of Common Sense)
• GOP Candidates Have It All Wrong on Community Banks’ Demise (American Banker)
• Crowdfunding or Crowdphishing? (Project Syndicate)
• Surveying the Ghost Cities of China (Priceonomics)
• The media hyped up a nationwide crime wave. A new report proves it’s bunk. (Vox)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with NYU Prof Scott Galloway