Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.30.18 (plus Framing Nature)

Below is the usual weekly summation but the biggest positive (which might still turn out to be a negative, maybe tomorrow will tell) is the new agreement reached with China in Buenos Aires Saturday which happened after this list went to press on Friday.  Of the positives that did make the list are a higher than expected increase in retail and wholesale inventories which is probably because of the gearing up for what is expected to be one of the best holiday seasons ever, evidenced from store sales increases being up over 20 percent from last week.  The big negative is a roughly 5 percent increase in jobless claims over last week. 


The bonus this Sunday evening as we usher in December on this very cold and wet weekend is this little treat of very amazing nature photography taken entire by drones and courtesy of "Weekend Reads" from yesterday's Big Picture blog.  There is quite a lot of narrative to this article but I had fun just looking at the spectacular photos.  One of the better samples is posted below.  Hope all of you enjoy it too. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.30.18

November 30, 2018 5:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending November 30th, 2018

Positives:

1. Home mortgage applications rose a seasonally adjusted 9.0% w/o/w, outpacing previous week’s 3.0% rise.
2. Retail inventories rose 0.9% m/o/m, higher than previous 0.1%.
3. Wholesale inventories rose 0.7% m/o/m, exceeding expected 0.4% build.
4. Same Store sales rose 7.9% w/o/w, up from previous week’s 6.2% rise.
5. Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to 0.24 in October, exceeding expected 0.20.
6. Consumer confidence came in at 135.7 for November, meeting expectations.

Negatives:

1. International trade in goods deficit increased to -$77.2B in October, deeper than the expected -$76.9B.
2. Jobless claims rose 10k w/o/w, from 224k to 234k.
3. New home sales came in at 544k for October, 31k less than the expected 575k.
4. Pending home sales fell -2.6% m/o/m, below the expected -0.5% decrease.
5. FHFA house price index rose 0.2% m/o/m, slowing from previous 0.4% rise.
6. Farm prices fell -3.5% m/o/m, falling 2% more than previous -1.5% decline.

Sat 12-1-18 10 Weekend Reads - The Big Picture

Sat 12-1-18 Big Pic: Framing nature | 3 Quarks Daily