Succinct Summations for the week ending May 24. Very light data week despite all the noise.
Positives:
1. U.S. jobless claims fell 23k to 340k v expectations of 345k.
2. Housing remains a significant tailwind in the U.S. as existing home sales increase 0.6% m/o/m in April to 4.94M units, the highest reading since November 2009.
3. U.S. new home sales rose 2.3% m/o/m in April to 454k versus expectations of 425k.
4. U.S. April Durable goods orders shows a nice beat, showing a rise of 3.3% v expectations of +1.5%.
5. Durable good ex-trans rose 1.3% v expectations of +0.5%
6. Dow Jones had gone a record 100 days without a 3 day losing streak, that was snapped this week (market could use a breather).
7. Despite a very noisy week, the S&P 500 is up >15% YTD, through May!
Negatives:
1. The Nikkei had a violent selloff Wednesday night, selling off 12.5% peak to trough.
2. The 7% overnight down move is the equivalent of 1,117 Dow points. Only the 10th time in the last 50 years the Nikkei declined more than 7% in a single day.
3. Wednesday saw a nasty reversal in the market with the Dow dropping nearly 300 points from the highs of the day to the lows.
4. The S&P 500 had not been up 1%only to finish down 1% since August 2011 (market came off the lows at the end of day to avoid this).
5. China’s May flash PMI comes in at 49.6 v expectations of 50.4, a 7 month low for the worlds second biggest economy, signaling contraction.
6. Japan’s April exports rose 3.8% y/o/y v expectations of 5.4%. C’mon Abe.
7. Secular decline in the PC market is reaffirmed by HP, whose PC sales fell (Wow!) 20% from a year ago.
8. Bernanke had a difficult time communicating the Fed’s intentions. Mr. Market had a difficult time digesting the fact that tapering can begin as early as this summer.
9. U.S. core capital shipments came in light than expected, declining 1.5% m/o/m v expectations or a 0.5% drop.
Thanks, Mike!
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