Succinct Summations for the week ending May 25th, 2018
Positives:
1. Following a series of diplomatic blunders, markets shook off lots of bad geopolitical news to close higher for the week;
2. Core durable goods orders rose 1% m/o/m, above the expected 0.7%.
3. PMI Composite rose to 55.7, up .9 from previous 54.8.
4. Chicago Fed National Activity index rose to 0.34, beating the expected 0.25.
5. Bloomberg consumer comfort index rose to 55.2 w/o/w, up 0.6 from previous 54.6.
Negatives:
1. MBA mortgage applications fell 2%. Fourth weekly decline in a row.
2. New home sales came in at 662k, missing expectations and down from previous 694k.
3. Existing home sales fell to an annualized rate of 5.46 million, missing expectations.
4. Jobless claims rose to 234k w/o/w, up 11k from previous week’s revised 223k.
5. Same store sales rose 3.2% w/o/w, down from previous 4.9% rise.
