What a week it was, this time the negatives outweighing the positives (not counting the really big positive or negative depending on which way your politics tilt, an event that did not make this list for obvious reasons.)  For this Sunday night I will share tonight's presentation on "60 Minutes," an excellent segment showcasing a teacher in an impoverished Mississippi elementary school who uses chess to teach his underachieving students how to excel.  We need more of this in all of our schools, a lot more of it!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 3.24.17

March 24, 2017 5:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending March 24th, 2017.

Positives:

1. New home sales rose 6.1% to a 592 annualized rate.
2. Durable goods rose 1.7%, slightly above expectations.
3. The Chicago Fed national activity index rose from -0.05, which was revised up to -0.02, to 0.34.
4. FHFA house price index rose 5.7% y/o/y.

Negatives:

1. S&P 500 fell 1% in remarkably, its worst week of the year.
2. PMI composite flash came in at 53.2, below the 54.3 expected.
3. Core capital goods fell 0.1%, versus an anticipated 0.5% increase.
4. Existing home sales fell 3.% in February to a 5.48M annualized rate, below the 5.55M expected.
5. Jobless claims rose 15k to 258k, a 7-week high.
6. The FHFA house price index was flat m/o/m, below the expectations of a 0.5% rise.
7. MBA mortgage applications fell 2.7% w/o/w.