Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 9.15.17 (plus Ray Dalio)

The usual Sunday night weekly summation is below.  It was a very good week for the markets with all three major indexes reaching new all-time highs, job openings also higher than expected, up almost a full percentage point since June.  The negatives of retail sales and industrial production down are being dismissed as transitory events caused by the hurricanes.  I guess we'll have a better idea of this in a few weeks.  Meanwhile, the Sunday bonus this week is a two-hour audio conversation with Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, who started his investments firm in his apartment 42 years ago and now has $160 billion dollars under management which makes Bridgewater the fifth most important private company in the U.S. and Dalio among the 100 wealthiest people in the world.  Bridgewater is a name that comes up frequently in research so this two hour recording may very well be a very worthwhile condensed course in successful investing.  Hope everyone had a great time this beautiful weekend.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 9.15.17

September 15, 2017 4:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending September 15th, 2017

Positives:

1. S&P500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and NASDAQ Composite all made new all-time highs.
2. Consumer prices rose 0.4% m/o/m, above expectations for the first time since February. Core rose 0.2%, in line with expectations.
3. Job openings rose to a higher than expected 6.17 million, up 0.9% from June.
4. Empire manufacturing remains strong, coming in at 24.4 versus the 19 expected.
5.NFIB small business optimism index came in at 105.3, matching the 12-year high set in January.

Negatives:

1. Retail sales fell 0.2% m/o/m, their biggest decline in six months. MBA mortgage applications rose 9.9% w/o/w, the purchase index rose 11%.
2. Producer prices rose just 0.2%, below expectations for the third straight month.
3. New jobless claims came in at 284k, the 4-week moving average rose from 250.25k to 263.25k.
4. Industrial production fell 0.9%, well below the 0.1% expected increase.

 

 

Ray Dalio of Bridgewater on Tim Ferris Show - The Big Picture

Ray Dalio of Bridgewater on Tim Ferris Show

September 17, 2017 7:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

From TF:

Ray Dalio (@raydalio) grew up a middle-class kid from Long Island. He started his investment company Bridgewater Associates out of a two-bedroom apartment at age 26, and it now has roughly $160 billion in assets under management. Over 42 years, he has built Bridgewater into what Fortune considers the fifth most important private company in the U.S.  Along the way, Dalio became one the 100 most influential people in the world (according to Time) and one of the 100 wealthiest people in the world (according to Forbes). Because of his unique investment principles that have changed industries, CIO Magazine dubbed him “the Steve Jobs of investing.”

Almost Two hours of Ray Dalio, The Steve Jobs of Investing:  see the link above.