Succinct Summation of events for the week ending March 22:
Positives:
1) FOMC statement indicates fed continues its $85B pace of bond purchases
2) Single family housing starts were the highest since July 2008; median home price rose 11.6% year over year to $173,600.
3) Existing home sales grew to 4.98 million (annualized) last month, highest level in 3 years
4) Jobless claims come in at 336k, post-recession low in the 4 week moving average (339.8k).
5) March China HSBC flash manufacturing PMI 51.7 v 50.8 expected (readings over 50 indicate expansion).
6) Markit’s March flash PMI, the index of nationwide manufacturing rose to 54.9 from 54.3 in
7) February UK jobless claims change for February come in at -1.5k, prior -12.5k.
8) Nike makes new all-time highs.
Negatives:
1) S&P 500 is down for the week — first time in 4 weeks
2) Cyprus plans to confiscate up to 9.9% of bank deposits in an effort to stay solvent.
3) AAII bullish sentiment fell from 45.42% down to 38.9%.
4) Fedex dropping as much as 10.5% of its market cap since reporting a big miss on Wednesday.
5) UK GDP forecasts lowered to +1.8% in 2014 vs previous estimate of 2%
6) Avg 30 yr mortgage rate rose to 3.82% — highest since Aug; Refi apps fell 8%
7) NAHB homebuilder confidence fell to 44 v expectations of 47.
8) Database giant Oracle loses 9.7% ugly after earnings report — biggest drop since December 2011
9) German PMI manufacturing declined to 48.9 in March, from a 50.3 reading in February; Euro-area services and manufacturing output also fell to 46.5 from 47.9 in February.
10) FHFA house price index for January came in at 0.6%, below expectations of 0.7%; Existing home sales grew 0.8% rise vs expectations of 1.6%.
11) 57% of U.S. workers surveyed reported less than $25k in total household savings and investments.
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