MariasCap: Succinct Summations of Week’s Events 2.7.20 (plus Don't Fall For Financial Fraud)

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Succinct Summations of Week’s Events 2.7.20 (plus Don't Fall For Financial Fraud)

Below again on this weekend's end is the summation for the week, the big positive (besides "Yay! Impeachment is over, and we can all get back to normal!" -- actually I think they're being more than a tad optimistic predicting we'll be getting back to normal anytime soon) but the big positive that really is a positive is new jobs coming in way above forecast. And the big negative (no surprise) is "Ugh! 9 months of campaigning ahead.") The unemployment rate rising from 3.5% to 3.6% is also listed as a negative but it should be a positive since the reason it went up is because the job market is going so well that many long-term unemployed who have long since given up are encouraged now and have re-entered the job market.

The bonus this Sunday evening is an 11 minute YouTube video about avoiding financial fraud and promoting a new book on this topic, posted just this morning on Barry Ritholz's Big Picture blog. Given how many really smart people fell victim to Madoff''s fraud, this is 11 minutes of your life that should be well worth the investment. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Succinct Summations of Week’s Events 2.7.20

February 7, 2020 4:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending February 7th, 2020

Positives:

1. Yay! Impeachment is over, and we can all get back to normal!
2. Non-farm payrolls rose 225k m/o/m, above the expected 160k.
3. Private payrolls came in at 291k for January, above expectations.
4. Jobless claims fell 15k w/o/w from 217k to 202k.
5. Home refinance apps rose 15.0% w/o/w.
6. Same store sales rose 5.7% w/o/w.
7. Factory orders rose 1.8% m/o/m, above expectations.

Negatives:

1. Ugh: Now we get to spend the next 9 months focusing on 2020 Presidential Elections!
2. Total nonfarm employment level (March 2019) revised downward by 514,000;
3. Home mortgage apps disappointed, falling 10.0% w/o/w;
4. Unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.6% in January.
5. PMI Manufacturing Index fell 0.5% in January from 52.4 to 51.9.
6. Non-farm productivity rose 1.4% m/o/m, below expectations.
7. Wholesale trade fell 0.2%, below expectations.