Here is the week’s succinct summation of the week’s events:
Positives:
1. Dow and S&P 500 had strong weeks, with the S&P closing at 52 week highs and the Dow closing at all time highs.
2. Unemployment rate declines to a a 4 year low of 7.7%
3. February NFP up 236k (165k consensus)
4. Total net worth for households and non-profit groups increased to $66.1 trillion in Q4. Thats a 1.8% gain, or by $1.17 trillion dollars better than Q3 and the highest level in 5 years.
5. Beige Book indicated that economic activity generally expanded at a modest to moderate rate.
6. U.S dollar index climbed to its highest level since Aug 2009
7. Gas prices are on pace for their 10 straight day of declines on dollar strength.
8. First time jobless claims fell to 340,000, the best in six weeks.
9. ISM non-manufacturing 56
10. 48K construction jobs added in February, the most since December 2007.
11. ADP jobs report 198k v expectations of 170k
12. Asian stocks continue to rally, at highest levels since August 2011
13. UK services PMI grew at its fastest pace in five months.
14. Consumer credit outstanding rose in January and saw the biggest jump since August
Negatives:
1. Productivity in US Falls 1.9% in Q4, labor costs climb 4.6%; Biggest productivity drop in four years.
2. January factory orders in the US fell 2%
3. AAII bullish sentiment increased by less than 3%from 28.4% to 31.1%.
4. US Trade deficit widens to $44.45 billion, larger than the $42.6 billion expected
5. ECB predicted Euro area economy will shrink 0.5% in 2013.
6. Germany factory orders fell by 1.9% in January vs 0.6% expected. Factory orders for the European Union as a whole fell by 4.1%
7. French unemployment rose to a 13 year high of 10.6% in Q4
8. Fitch downgrades Italy’s credit rating to BBB+ from A- (further downgrades possible)
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