Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.22.19 (plus 2020 Investing Advice Pt. II)

Below is the usual Sunday night weekly summation, the main positive being a continuing profitable Q3, the negative being a week-long sell off due to weakening confidence in a trade deal.  The bonus this time is an important clarification to Saturday's post.  Last night's entry was a rather long read but, since the information is so valuable, I thought I should clarify that if you click on the provided link to the actual Fortune article, you'll find that the article is actually a transcript of an interview of these experts all conducted on video. The video, 45 minutes in length, is at the top of the article. Some of you might prefer to listen to the interview rather than reading the transcript.  Either way, hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.22.19

November 22, 2019 4:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending November 22nd, 2019

Positives:

1. Q3 Earnings continue to come in stronger than expected;
2. Existing home sales rose 1.9% m/o/m, from 5.360M to 5.460M.
3. Home mortgage apps rose 7.0% w/o/w, above the previous increase of 5.0%.
4. Index of Leading Indicators fell 0.1% m/o/m, above the expected decrease of 0.2%.
5. PMI Composite rose 0.6 m/o/m from 51.6 to 52.2.
6. Consumer sentiment came in at 96.8 in November, above the expected 95.7

Negatives:

1. Markets sell off for the week as trade deal seems to be DOA. falling apart. Hard to believe Charlie Brown traders still fall for Lucy’s same football trade deal tricks;
2. Jobless claims remained the same for the week at 227k, above the expected 217k.
3. Same store sales rose 4.1% m/o/m, decelerating from the previous increase of 5.0%.
4. Housing starts came in at 1.314M in October, below the expected 1.320M.
5. Home mortgage refinance apps fell 8.0% w/o/w, below the previous increase of 13.0%.
6. Housing market index fell 1 point in November to 70, below the expected 71.