| Date | Prior | Current | Rating | |
| Chicago Fed Natl Activity | Nov-20 | 0.83 | 0.27 | C |
| Richmond Fed Mfg M/M | Dec-20 | 15.00 | 19.00 | C+ |
| Durable Good M/M | Nov-20 | 1.30 | 0.01 | C |
| GDP Q/Q | Q3 | 33.10 | 33.40 | C |
| Corp Profits Q/Q | Q3 | 10.70 | 10.30 | C |
| Existing Home Sales M/M | Nov-20 | 6.850M | 6.690M | C- |
| New Home Sales | Nov-20 | 999K | 841K | C- |
| FHFA HPI M/M | Oct-20 | 1.70 | 1.50 | C |
| Personal Income M/M | Nov-20 | -0.70 | -1.10 | C- |
| Personal Spending M/M | Nov-20 | 0.50 | -0.40 | C- |
| Consumer Confidence M/M | Dec-20 | 96.10 | 88.60 | D+ |
| Consumer Sentiment M/M | Dec-20 | 81.40 | 80.70 | C |
| RedBook W/W | 12/19/2020 | 2.50 | 6.50 | B- |
| Jobless Claims W/W | 12/19/2020 | 885.00 | 803.00 | B- |
Nothing of consequence today and obviously, nothing tomorrow.
Some more concerns this week mixed with a little encouragement.
Consumer Confidence took a dive and Consumer Sentiment remains at depressed levels.
Personal Income and Spending dropped a bit, in line with the mood of Consumers.
Existing and New Homes Sales settled down a bit from very high numbers. As Builders sentiment dropped a few points last week so this is no surprise. They remain at respectable levels so not an area of concern.
GDP and Corp profits are old news from a quarter passed. Time to start focusing on Q4 as it nears it's close with the Atl Fed forecasting a still lofty 10+%. Lots of significant numbers remain to be reported over the next 2 months.
Mfg remains positive though the expected mideration continues.
Most notable, for me, was the drop in Jobless Claims and the increase in RedBook. A caveat in that Jobless Claims are still far too high and RedBook is not the best Retail Indicator, but these are the "Canaries in a coal mine" IMO.
With that in mind, I'll go with a cautious C+ for the week and downgrade the suck factor to 7.
Merry Christmas to all my Forum Friends. May you all be blessed for the remainder of this and the duration of next year.
Thanks very much for this Christmas present Tim(then it must be Christmas all year for us)
Merry Christmas to you also!
Thanks MM. It was a great Chrsitmas, a small gathering with awesome food.
Dividends are also great for me in December and so far, I've not been dissapointed. A week to go. Will I get a Santa Rally as well? In spite of a rocky year, this has turned out to be one of the most profitable ones for me. The post covid crash adjustments turned out to be a good idea. Back into wealth preservation mode now. Hope I haven't jinxed myself.
Here's to a good 2021 which is planned to be my last year of full employment. I will work most of 2022, but probably not till the end. Maybe I'll do a little consulting on the side.. But not enough to interfere with our plans. The internet allows me to work from just about anywhere and I'll have a satelite connection. We'll see. Then I'll become a semi-professional RV driver with a much smaller house. The one I'm in now is "stupid big" for just the two of us, but will pay for a smaller home with a bit left over.
So here's wishing you and all my forum friends a fantastic New Year :-)
Great message Tim.
So happy to see things working out well for you. How many years did you work the current job and what were your main jobs?
After retirement, maybe you will be interested in becoming moderator on MarketForum.........just kidding.
Maybe more time to post!
Week in Review compilation Mar-December 2020
I've been a programer, systems analyst, data anaylist, ect ect. Lot's of titles, but essentially offering solutions to business objectives, problems for 45 years or so., using technology/computers. In high school and before, Had you asked me to list 100 carreer choices, computers would not have been on the list. I was originally planning to be a psychologist, but I'd have been a terrible one.
Choosing computers in the late 70's turned out to be a pretty good choice. At the risk of sounding like I am bragging, and I guess I sorta am, I've been a pioneer in a lot of areas that most now take for granted. Most notably, bar coding and internet.. No, I did not develope them all by myself. I believe that was Al Gore.. But I was one of the guys who helped make it "everyday" kinda stuff. One of the biggest rushes of my career was the first time I wrote software to get two computers "talking" using bisynchronous dial up. One in Ga, the other in Ca. Early/Mid 80's. Up to that time, data exchange was overnighting data on disk/tape. 9600 bits/second was "screaming fast" back then :-)
It's been wild and exciting. I'll miss it terribly. Hopefully, I'll be able to fill my time in other ways.. And, maybe, just maybe, a few companies will find a use for me in an extremely limited form of consulting. But I have slowly fallen behind, tech wise. It's been a challenge to keep up. A lot of guys I admired along the way could not keep up. Ran into one at a company I worked at who was training to be a welder. Nothing wrong with honest work, but I am hopeful I'll never have to make that choice. Finances currently make it unlikely, but there for the grace of Gawd... As the saying goes.
Thanks for sharing that Tim.
Nice to hear big success stories like that
Don't know that I'd call it s big success story, but I've enjoyed the heck out of it. I can't imagine another path that would have been better. There are worse ways to make a living :-)