Making America Great Again -- April 25, 2019

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Sports: American like basketball -- NBA scores often end 120 - 118 range. Americans don't like soccer -- MLS scores often end 1 - 0.

The market: Americans like the Dow -- moves 100 - 300 points some days. Americans don't like the S&P 500 -- it moves 2 to 6 points on any given day.

Today: the Dow falls 200 points. 3M accounted for 160 points of that 200-point fall. But Americans like the Dow.

Solution: if Wall Street wants to get Americans to focus on the more relevant S&P 500, Wall Street needs to find a way to re-calibrate the latter to have it more 100 - 500 points a day. .

Traders: love the hysteria of the Dow.

Investors: should be watching the S&P 500.

Jobs: initial jobless claims --

• prior, revised upward 1,000 to 193,000 (a 50-year low)
• forecast: 200,000
• actual: 230,000
• continuing jobless claims: fell more than expected to 1.655 million for the week ending April 13

Durable goods:

Durable goods orders came in higher-than-expected based on March’s advanced reading, and core capital good orders posted their largest advance in 8 months. New orders for durable goods, or those meant to last three years or more, rose 2.7% in March, ahead of expectations for a 0.8% increase. Non-defense new orders for capital goods excluding aircraft – the so-called “core” reading of equipment spending that serves as a proxy for business spending – rose 1.3%, surging ahead of expectations for a 0.2% increase. However, shipments for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft unexpectedly declined in March, falling 0.2%, versus a 0.1% rise expected.

“The strong rise in durable goods orders in March was driven in part by a surge in underlying capital goods orders which, together with stronger retail sales last month, suggests the economy is carrying more momentum into the second quarter,” Michael Pearce, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics, wrote in a note Thursday. 

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For Your Reading Pleasure

Highly recommend Carpe Diem's series of three:

• for every 100 girls, ... part 1
• for every 100 girls, ... part II
• for every 100 girls ... part III

If you do visit Carpe Diem, scroll down through the Earth Day posts.

For those reading about Greenland melting, be sure to get the facts.

Great wildlife photos at The Deplorable Climate Science Blog.