Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 12.4.15 (+ Sunday reads)

Here's the all-popular weekly eye-shot again.  This week's reading list contains numerous titles that give the different perspective that the recovery is basically all smoke and mirrors, a point of view shared by much of the public and some of the Wall Street types who are out on the fringe, but not by most mainstream economists.  There is also a pretty interesting looking book out there about the tumultuous political struggles in the early 20th century to pass the Federal Reserve Act and create the Federal Reserve.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 12.4.15

by Barry Ritholtz - December 4th, 2015, 4:00pm

Succinct Summations for the week ending December 4th, 2015

Positives:

1. Nonfarm payrolls came in at 211k, above the 190k expected; all systems are ready for liftoff.
2. PMI manufacturing index came in at 52.8, in line with expectations.
3. Construction spending rose 1%, above the 0.6% expected rise.
4. Unemployment came in at 5%, in line with expectations.
5. Factory orders rose 1.5%, up from the 1% decline previously.
6. MBA mortgage applications purchase index rose 8% w/o/w and 30% y/o/y.
7. ADP employment report came in at 217k vs the 183k expected.
8. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2%, in line with expectations.
9. Initial jobless claims came in at 269k, lowering the 4-week moving avg to 269.25k.
10. PMI services index came in at 56.1, up from 54.8 previously.

Negatives:

1. ISM manufacturing index falls to 48.6, the lowest reading since June 2009.
2. Chicago PMI came in at 48.7, down from 56.2 previously and below expectations.
3. Pending home sales grew just 0.2%, below the 1% expected increase.
4. ISM no-manufacturing index fell to 55.9 from 59.1 and below the 58.2 expected.

Sunday Reads

by Barry Ritholtz - December 6th, 2015, 8:30am

My easy like Sunday morning brunch reads:

• Shiller: Don’t Assume a Fed Action Will Move the Market (The Upshot)
• What investor assumptions are common and flawed? (FT) see also Why Critical Thinking Is in Short Supply (ThinkAdvisor)
• Will there ever be another Charlie Munger? (25iq)
• Why Wall Street’s campaign to enrich shareholders could be bad for everyone else (Vox)
• The fall and rise of technology juggernauts (FT)
• They Can’t Hear America Booming (Bloomberg View)
• Detecting BS (NeuroLogica)
• Before Giving, Check Out Charities and Their Policies on Privacy (NYT)
• New York Daily News Slams ‘Terrorist’ NRA Boss Wayne LaPierre (Huffington Post)
• Why Is “Survivor” Still on Television? (Nautilus)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Roger Lowenstein, author of When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management. His latest book is America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve.