Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.23.18 (plus the fall of FAANG)

Below please find the usual weekly summation with not a lot of positive on the list and the big negative being the biggest weekly percentage losses on both the Dow and the Nasdaq since March and the S&P officially entering correction territory having lost this week 10.1 percent of its value since hitting its high in September.  But since this was an abbreviated week with light volume, these figures don't really reflect the whole story and we will need to wait for everyone to get back from vacation next week to see if things are as dire as they look.  If history is any indicator, things will be looking up.  The bonus this week is a scary picture of what's happened to all the FAANG stocks since early September.  This graphic sort of goes hand-in-hand with all the bad news this week.  Hope everyone enjoyed the relatively nice holiday weekend because it looks like a mess of a wintry mix coming our way starting tomorrow. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.23.18

November 23, 2018 5:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending November 23rd, 2018

Positives:

1.Existing home sales came in at an annualized rate of 5.220M for October, exceeding expectations.
2.E-commerce retail sales rose 3.1% in Q3 for a second straight quarter
3. Housing starts rose to an annualized rate of 1.228M, meeting expectations.
4. MBA mortgage applications rose a seasonally adjusted 3.0% w/o/w, up from previous 2.3% decrease.
5. Index of economic leading indicators rose by 0.1% m/o/m.
6. Same store sales rose 6.2 w/o/w, up from previous 6.1% increase.

Negatives:

1. Dow, NASDAQ post biggest percentage weekly drop since March.
2. A month ago Bitcoin was $6392.45; today it is  $4,241.43. All of the CryptoCurrencies are getting pounded;
3. POTUS threatens independence of the Federal Reserve and Judiciary;
4. Home refinance applications fell 5% w/o/w, following a 4.3% decrease in previous week.
5. Durable goods orders fell 4.4% m/o/m, down from a prior revised 0.1% decrease.
6. Consumer sentiment came in at 97.5 for November, missing the expected 98.3.

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