Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 8.18.17 (plus robots)

The weekly summation is here again and, despite the very obvious negative of the market having its worst week since the election, there are still the significant positives of several major economic indicators -- industrial production, capacity utilization, and Empire state manufacturing -- all coming in stronger than expected.  Since tonight's "60 Minutes" broadcast featured a very compelling story about military drones, it seemed quite timely to share this blurb from the Brookings Institution about the state of industrial robots, including an eye-popping national graphic.  Isn't it interesting that so much of the national robotic activity seems concentrated right here in Southeastern Michigan?  Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and look forward to the eclipse tomorrow.  Protective eye-wear please!  Don't want any stories on tomorrow night's news about all the foolish people blinded by this twice in a lifetime event.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 8.18.17

August 18, 2017 5:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending August 18th, 2017

Positives:

1.White House Strategist Steve Bannon is fired, giving hope for some policy stability in the future.
2. Initial jobless claims remain low, at 232k. The 4-week average is now down to 240.5k.
3. Retail sales rose 0.6% m/o/m. June was revised higher from -0.2% to +0.3%. .
4. Japan GDP grew at a 4% annualized rate in the most recent quarter, its sixth consecutive expansionary reading, the longest since 2006
5. US July industrial production rose by 0.2% m/o/m, one tenth more than expected 
6. Overall capacity utilization held at 76.7%, the most in 2 years
7. Consumer sentiment remains elevated, coming in at 97.6, above the 93.4 expected.
8. Empire state manufacturing survey came in at 25.2, the strongest number since September 2014.

Negatives:

1. U.S. Stocks had a rough day on Thursday, experiencing their worst loss in three months.
2. Housing starts fell to a lower than expected 1.155 million SAAR, below the 1.255 expected.
3. Industrial production rose just 0.2% m/o/m, below the 0.3% expected rise.
4. Motor vehicle/parts production fell by 3.6% m/o/m and are now down 5% y/o/y as auto markets adjust to too much inventory.
5. Outside of petroleum, import and export prices came in flat m/o/m.
6. Purchase applications for a mortgage fell by a seasonally adjusted 2% w/o/w

Robots in Midwest - The Big Picture

Robots in Midwest

August 20, 2017 11:00am by Barry Ritholtz

Brookings:

Where are the robots, exactly? One answer—if you read the steady flow of doomy articles online — is that automation is everywhere, not just all over the media but (you would have to conclude) thoroughly infiltrating the economy. In that sense, the trend seems omnipresent even as it spawns a kind of free-floating dread amongst the chattering class.

Yet, that can’t be right. Almost nothing in today’s economy is evenly distributed, whether it be technology, productivity, output, or inclusive prosperity. And so it is worth getting more specific about where exactly automation may displace workers — and where not.  

Fascinating…

In Midwest its Robots (not Immigrants) taking Industrial/Manufacturing Jobs