Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 12.04.20 (plus Unraveling Medicare)

Below find the usual weekly summation, the main positive being that November saw the strongest market gains in 30 years and November's layoffs were considerably lower than October's. The main negative as always is the out of control spikes in COVID with the unprecedented daily death rate now over 3,000.  The bonus this Sunday is the latest segment of Consuelo Mack's WealthTrack program in which we get the latest and greatest navigation of Medicare for those of us who are retired.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  COVID not withstanding, we're in for a nice week. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 12.04.20

December 4, 2020 5:00pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending December 4th, 2020

Positives:

1. November saw the strongest market gains in 30 years.
2. Unemployment rate fell from 6.9% to 6.7% m/o/m.
3. Home mortgage apps rose 9.0% m/o/m, above expectations.
4. Jobless claims fell 75k w/o/w from 787k to 712k.
5. PMI Composite came in at 58.6 for November, above expectations.
6. Construction spending rose 1.3% m/o/m, above expectations.
7. Corporate layoffs came in at 64,797 for November, below previous 80,666.

Negatives:

1. Covid 19 spike reached record daily infections, hospitalizations, with more than 3,100 deaths in a single day,
2. Nonfarm payrolls increased 245k m/o/m, far below expectations.
3. Chicago PMI came in at 58.2 for November, below previous 61.1.
4. Pending home sales fell 1.1% m/o/m, below expectations.
5. ISM Mfg Index came in at 57.5 for November, below previous 59.3.
6. ISM Services index came in at 55.9 for November, below previous 56.6.
7. International trade deficit came in at $-63.1B in October, below the previous $-63.9B.

12-3-20 UNRAVELING MEDICARE - A message from Consuelo - December 3, 2020

December 3, 2020  Dear WEALTHTRACK Subscriber, An estimated 90% of Americans pay too much for their Medicare benefits. In part 2 of our podcast with Making The Most Of Medicare author, Dr. Katy Votava, she discusses simple steps to get the most out of this critical and complex benefit and save thousands of dollars in the process. In case you missed it, in part 1 she explains how COVID-19 has changed some Medicare services and benefits, some for the better! Votava is a Medicare expert who advises individuals, small businesses and financial planners from her healthcare consulting business, GOODCARE.com.  Making The Most Of Medicare: A Guide For Baby Boomers, is now in its 7th edition and an Amazon bestseller. It is a straightforward, easy to navigate guide to Medicare which is a very complex, multi-part system that frequently does warrant annual updating by its beneficiaries. Especially for WEALTHTRACK viewers, Votava is offering a 25% discount on this valuable guide. You can click here to purchase the ebook. Just be sure to enter the discount code WT25. In the final week of Public Television’s holiday fundraising season, we are revisiting a rare and very popular recent interview with “Next Generation” Great Investor, Josh Spencer, lead portfolio manager of the legendary T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund.  He is a great example of why continuity of culture and investment discipline can really matter. If you miss the show on public television, you can watch it on our website over the weekend.  You can also find the WEALTHTRACK podcast on Stitcher and SoundCloud as well as iTunes and Spotify. Thanks so much for watching. Make the week ahead a healthy, profitable and productive one. Best regards, Consuelo Facebook Twitter WEALTHTRACK Site YouTube Channel As always, if you miss this week’s program, it will be available on our website. Also, I want to thank all of you who are following me on Twitter For those of you active on Facebook: You can connect with us on our Consuelo Mack  WEALTHTRACK  page.