Succinct Summations for the week ending August 16th, 2019
Positives:
1. POTUS saves Xmas! Ok, not quite, but fearing the deceleration of retail sales, the President postponed many tariffs until year end; U.S./China Trade Negotiators are (supposedly) coming back to the table;
2. Productivity in Q2 was better than expected with a 2.3% q/o/q annualized pace;
3. Retail sales rose 0.7% m/o/m, above the expected increase of 0.3%.
4. Import and export prices both rose 2.0% in m/o/m, above the expected 1.0% decrease.
5. CPI rose 0.3% m/o/m, above the expected increase of 0.2%.
6. Home mortgage refinance apps rose 37.0% w/o/w, above previous increase of 12.0%.
Negatives:
1. As it turns out, Trade Wars are neither good nor easy to win;
2. Industrial production fell 0.2%, below the expected increase of 0.1%.
3. Non-farm productivity rose 2.3% q/o/q, below the previous increase of 3.5%.
4. Same store sales rose 4.4% w/o/w, decelerating from previous increase of 5.1%
5. Jobless claims rose 9k w/o/w from 211k to 220k.
6. Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey came in at 16.8, below previous 21.8.
Thanks, Matt~!
