Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.17.17

Today I attempt to reboot the Marias blog with the usual Sunday night weekly summation.  Lou Ruckeyser on the old PBS Wall Street Week program used to joke that he had a consistent history of the stock market going down every time he went on vacation.  So the Dow took roughly a 300 point dive during the week I was in PA even though it did recover most of that on Thursday (only to lose much of it again on Friday.)  There is bound to be a correction once it becomes evident that tax reform is going to fail, and lately there are not too many economists who believe it won't.  Anyway the new AOL desktop browser is a complete flop so I have moved to AOL Mail to get my work done now and will endeavor to keep this going on a daily/nightly basis once again. 


Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.17.17

November 17, 2017 5:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending November 17th, 2017

Positives:

1. U.S. stocks had their best day on Thursday since early September.
2. Industrial production rose 0.9% m/o/m, manufacturing rose 1.3%, both well above expectations.
3. Housing starts rose 13.7% to a 1.29 million annualized rate, above the 1.135 million expected. Permits came in at 1.297 million, above the 1.215 million expected.
4. Retail sales rose 0.2%, above the 0.1% expected increase. Previous month was revised up from 1.6% to 1.9%.
5. NFIB small business optimism index rose from 103 to 103.8, but below the 105 expected.
6. Producer Price Index rose 0.4% m/o/m, above the 0.1% expected increase.
7. MBA mortgage applications rose 3.1% w/o/w, with refinances increasing by 6%.

Negatives:

1. Jobless claims rose from 239k to 249k, above the 236k expected.
2. Consumer prices rose just 0.1% m/o/m, in line with expectations.
3. Import prices rose 0.2% m/o/m, below the 0.4% expected increase.
4. Export prices came in flat, below the 0.1% expected increase.