Succinct Summations of Week’s Events 6.29.18 (plus 10 year S&P graphic)

Below please find the usual weekly summary.  Income growth is up 4 percent and the GDP price index is 15 percent higher than expected.  Somehow the savings rate rising 2/10 of a percent made the negative column, though this should be considered a positive given the recent Fed rate hikes.  The bonus this Sunday night is another very telling graphic that shows that as the stock market and dividends have risen throughout this recovery, stock buybacks have risen even more, giving more credence to the growing strength of the economy.  Hope everyone has weathered this steamy weekend okay. 

Succinct Summations of Week’s Events 6.29.18

June 29, 2018 5:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending June 29th, 2018

Positives:

1. Private sector wage and salary growth in May was up 4.9% Year/over/year — near best levels this cycle; Overall income growth was up 4% y/o/y, second best since 2015.
2. Homes for sale = 299k, just 1k from the most amount of new homes for sale since 2009 and nearing 20 year average (not adjusted for the population growth).
3. GDP price index currently reads 2.2%, beating expected 1.9%.
4. New home sales rose 27k from 662k to 689k m/o/m;
5. Exports increased 2.1% and imports increased .2% bringing the goods deficit to -64.8B in May, beating expectations.
6. Wholesale inventories rose .5% m/o/m, beating the expected 0.3%.

Negatives:

1. Savings rate rose two tenths to 3.2% after falling by two tenths in April — still near 10 year lows.
2. Same store rose only 3.1%, down 1.6% from previous 4.7% rise.
3. Durable goods orders fell 0.6% m/o/m as expected.
4. Median home price fell 3.3% y/o/y;  Pending home sales index fell 0.5% m/o/m, hitting the low end of expectations.
5. MBA mortgage applications fell 4.9% w/o/w, down from previous 5.1% rise.
6. Jobless claims rose 9k w/o/w, from 218k to 227k;
7. Consumer confidence fell from 128 to 126.4 in June.