Succinct Summations for the week ending January 15th, 2016
Positives:
- Small business optimism rose to 95.2, up from 94.8 previously and slightly higher than expected.
- Job openings came in at 5.431mm, up from 5.383mm previously.
- The MBA mortgage application composite index rose 21.3% w/o/w.
- Bloomberg’s consumer comfort index rose slightly, the 5th straight gain.
- Consumer sentiment rose to 93.3, up from 92.6 previously.
Negatives:
- S. stocks are off to their worst 10-day start ever.
- S. core retail sales fell 0.1% m/o/m, vs an expected 0.2% increase.
- The Beige book described growth consumer spending as “no better than slight to moderate.”
- S. jobless claims rose to 284k, and the 4-week moving average is up to 278.75k, from 275.75k previously.
- Empire state manufacturing survey collapsed to -19.37, its worst reading since 2009.
- Import and export prices are continuing to fall, -1.2% and 1.1% respectively.
- Retail sales fell 0.1% m/o/m, down from the 0.2% previous rise.
- Industrial production fell 0.4%, worse than the 0.2% expected decline.
- Business inventories fell 0.2%, versus flat expectations.
