Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 1.31.20 (plus R&D spending)

Below is  the usual weekly summation, the main positives being that the impeachment process is drawing to a close (even though depending on one's point of view, this could just as easily be the big negative) and that Q4 GDP rose 2.1 percent.  And the big negative, as before, is that America's standing in the world continues to fall due to all the embarrassing politicking.  The bonus this Sunday is yet another nice graphic.  Yesterday, I posted one about income tax rates in other countries.  Today, this very telling image was posted on the Big Picture blog about how China is quickly catching up with the U.S. on spending on R&D.  And R&D is what drives an economy.  But this same graph also shows that the EU is also not far behind.  One competitor, one ally.  Hope everyone had a great weekend. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 1.31.20

January 31, 2020 4:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending January 31st, 2020

Positives:

1. Impeachment process is drawing to a close;
2. Home mortgage apps rose 5.0% w/o/w.
3. GDP rose 2.1% in Q4, meeting expectations.
4. Same store sales rose 5.5%.
5. Durable goods orders rose 2.4% m/o/m.
6. Jobless claims fell 7k w/o/w from 223k to 216k.
7. Consumer confidence came in at 131.6 for January.

Negatives:

1. America’s standing in the world continues to fall on embarrassing revelations, partisanship, and cronyism;
2. New home sales came in at 694k for December, below expectations.
3. Pending home sales fell 4.9% m/o/m, below expectations.
4. Personal income rose 0.2% m/o/m, below expectations.
5. Consumer spending rose 0.3% m/o/m, below expectations.
6. International trade gap widens to $-68.3B in Dec.
7. Wholesale inventories fell 0.1% m/o/m, below prior month.