Succinct Summations for the week ending May 12th, 2017.
Positives:
1. Job openings in March rose to 5.743 million, up from 5.682 million in February.
2. Jobless claims fell from 238k to 236k, below the 244k expected.
3. MBA mortgage applications rose 2% w/o/w and 6% y/o/y, the highest reading since October 2015.
4. Wholesale inventories rose 0.2% m/o/m. The previous month was revised down from 0.4% to 0.4%.
5. Consumer sentiment came in at 97.7, above the 97.3 expected.
6. NFIB small business optimism index remains high, coming in at 104,5, above the 103.8 expected.
7. Non-petroleum imports rose 0.4%, the second strongest reading of this economic expansion.
Negatives:
1. Core retail sales and retail ex-autos rose 0.4% and 0.3% m/o/m, both below expectations.
2. Import prices rose 0.5% m/o/m, well above the 0.1% expected increase. Import prices rose 4.1% y/o/y, exports rose 3%.
3. Producer prices rose 0.5%, above the 0.3% expected increase.
4. But, Inflation is not showing up in April’s CPI, which rose just 0.2% m/o/m.
5. Bloomberg consumer confidence fell from 50.9 to a still strong 49.7.
Thanks, Mike!
