Succinct Summations for the week ending February 15th, 2019 (plus Hedge Fund Titans)

Below please find the usual weekly summation with the big plus this week of market gains due to the new budget deal, the big minus that retail sales came in way below forecast - a minus 1.2 percent vs an expected plus of 0.1 percent.  Another minus that really should be a plus are jobless claims being up about 2 percent, but these were mostly residual claims from the shutdown which don't really count since they were both temporary and artificial. 


Actually I'm not quite certain how these claims were even allowed in the count since it was in the news that the shutdown victims could not apply for unemployment because they were technically not unemployed.  Such is government data.  The bonus this Sunday is a very interesting graphic showing the biggest hedge funds and how much they are worth.  The headline says "Added to Their Fortunes" but since there was no prior data presented, this was inaccurate.  Still, it is worth noting that these top hedge funds account for about 72 billion dollars of investment assets.  Hope everyone had a great weekend. 

Succinct Summations for the week ending February 15th, 2019

February 15, 2019 5:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending February 15th, 2019

Positives:

1. Markets gain on the week, as Administration cuts a budget deal;
2. Vehicle sales, not part of the holiday season, contributed strongly to December’s Retail results;
3. Job openings rose 3.1% in December to 7.34m, beating expected 6.90m;
4. CPI remains flat for a third straight month;
5. Consumer sentiment at 95.5 for February, beat expected 93.0;
6. Empire state mfg survey came in at 8.8 for February, above the expected 7.6;

Negatives:

1. Retail sales disappoint, fell 1.2% m/o/m, missing expected 0.1% rise.
2. Jobless claims rose 4k w/o/w, from 235k to 239k.
3. Import prices fell 0.5% m/o/m; export prices fell 0.6% m/o/m.
4. Home mortgage apps fell 6.0% w/o/w, the 4th weekly decline in a row.
5. Business inventories fell 0.1% m/o/m, down from previous 0.6% rise.
6. Same store sales rose 4.6% w/o/w, down from previous 5.7%.

Sun 2-17-19 BigPic: 10 Weekend Reads