Sunday, February 16, 2020

Succinct Summation for the Week 2.14.20 (plus Your 401(k) Depends on These 7 Stocks)

The weekly summations. On the credit side, the coronavirus seems to be getting managed and jobless claims rose less than expected. On the debit side, job openings also rose less than expected. And the bigger debit: Trump's interference with active criminal cases at the DOJ is undermining the global view, making us look like a Banana Republic. But I suspect the market will shrug this off.

The bonus this Sunday evening is from U.S. News Invested. Here are 7 stocks that most 401k's are heavily invested in so it goes to reason that any reasonably allocated portfolio should have a portion of each of these. A word of caution: 4 of these 7 belong to the so-called FAANG group. The problem with FAANG: they are so huge that the index is very heavily weighted in them. Thus, if they go south, so goes the market. A wiser allocation would be high quality non-correlated investments to balance these out. Just a thought. Enjoy President's Day tomorrow.

Succinct Summation for the Week 2.14.20

February 14, 2020 4:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending February 14th, 2020

Positives:

1. Corona virus could have been much much worse; its not fully contained, but it seems to be getting managed;
2. CPI rose 0.1% m/o/m, meeting expectations.
3. Jobless claims rose 2k w/o/w from 203k to 205k, below expectations.
4. Home refinance apps rose 5.0% w/o/w, rising 2nd straight week.
5. Retail sales rose 0.3% m/o/m, above previous increase;
6. Business inventories rose 0.1% m/o/m.

Negatives:

1. As POTUS unleashed, America looks increasingly like a Banana Republic; Possible danger to U.S. Justice Department and other institutions?
2. Home mortgage apps fell 6.0% w/o/w after previously falling 10.0%.
3. Job openings came in at 6.423M for December, below expectations.
4. Industrial Production fell 0.3% for a second straight week.
5. Same store sales rose 4.8% w/o/w, decelerating from previous increase.