Succinct Summations of the week’s events ending January 3, 2014
Positives:
1. Stocks closed 2013 at all-time highs and enjoyed their best year since 1997.
2. 2013 was only the 10th year where the S&P 500 never had a single day where the index was down YTD.
3. U.S. ISM manufacturing grew for seventh straight month.
4. U.S. manufacturing output increased at fastest pace since 2012
5. Construction spending hit the highest levels since 2009.
6. Initial jobless claims come in at 339k v expectations of 344k.
7. Consumer confidence came in at 78.1 v expectations of 76.
8. Spain output prices rose at fastest pace since 2011.
9. Vietnam manufacturing output rose at fastest pace since 2011, likewise for Taiwan’s output expansion.
10. Growth in Italian output had its fastest rise in 3 years.
Negatives:
1. GM sales dropped sharply, falling 6.3% vs expectations of a 1.5% gain.
2. Gold had its worst year in a really long time, the whole commodity complex had an ugly 2013
3. First day of 2014 started with some ugly tax selling
4. Corporate borrowing in the Euro zone in November sees its biggest one month drop in at least 20 yrs as banks retrench further and demand remains lackluster
5. China’s December manufacturing indices and the main services PMI moderated m/o/m while still holding above 50.
6. Pending Home Sales in November rose just .2% m/o/m off the lowest level of the year.
7. December vehicle sales below estimate figure of less than 16mm SAAR — GM, Ford, Chrysler, Nissan and Toyota all miss forecasts following strong gain in November.
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