Succinct Summations of Week’s Events for 1.26.18

Sun, 1-28-18

I almost forgot about this tonight so, at this late hour, I will restrict this post to just the usual Sunday night succinct summary for the week.  Saturday night I was out until past 3 a.m. so I decided to skip this blog.  I have spent the bulk of this past week and weekend researching all my options for pursuing the CFP and so a few minutes ago I registered for the 2018-19 cohort program at Oakland University.  I had decided pretty much for sure a couple weeks ago that I was going to do my studies online instead of at OU but after reviewing the online offerings I finally decided a few days ago that the best way to find out if this is the right path for me is just to take the first class at OU which begins a week from Wednesday.  I may not make it past the first class; I may not even make it through the first class.  But the exposure should give me a much better idea of whether this is the right choice for me.  Hope everyone had a great weekend. Brace yourselves, winter is coming back. 



Succinct Summations of Week’s Events for 1.26.18

January 26, 2018 5:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending January 26th, 2018

Positives:

1. Markets closed at another set of record highs.
2. Consumer spending rose by 3.8%, up from 2.2% previously and above the 3.6% expected increase.
3. Durable goods orders rose 2.9% m/o/m, above the 0.6% expected increase.
4. New home sales fell 9.3% from a 733k SAAR to 625K. However, this is down from the best reading of the expansion, and 625K is the fourth highest number in the current economic expansion.
5. MBA mortgage applications rose 4.5% w/o/w, with the purchase index rising 6%.
6. Jobless claims rose slightly to 233k, but the 4-week moving averageremains exceptionally low at 240k.

Negatives:

1. GDP rose to only 2.6% on an annualized basis, disappointing those who were confident we were already at a 3% run rate.
2. Existing home sales fell 3.6% in December, from a 5.81M annualized rate to 5.57M.
3. PMI composite came in a 53.8, slightly below the 54 expected.
4. Richmond fed manufacturing index slowed from 20 to 14, below the 18 expected.