The Big Picture

Periodic Table of Wine
Succinct Summations of Week’s Events (3.6.15)
The Gender Pay Gap
What the Fed Will Be Looking at in Today’s Employment Report
10 Friday AM Reads
Bentley’s Speed 6

Posted: 06 Mar 2015 05:00 PM PST

Succinct Summations of Week’s Events (3.6.15)

Posted: 06 Mar 2015 01:30 PM PST

Succinct Summations of events for week ending March 6^th2015:

Positives:

1. U.S. Nonfarm payrolls came in at 295k vs expectations for 240k.
2. Unemployment fell to 5.5%, down from 5.7% in January and the lowest level since May 2008.
3. The NASDAQ Composite crossed 5,000 for the first time in 15 years.
4. January ADP payrolls revised up to 250k from 213 previously reported.
5. Markit's PMI came in at 55.1, better than the 54.3 expected and up from 53.9 last month.
6. ISM services came in at 57.1, in line with expectations and up from 54.2 in January.
7. The US economy has added 200k jobs for 12 straight months.

Negatives:

1. ADP private payrolls came in at 212k, vs the 219k estimated.
2. Personal income rose 0.3% vs expectations for a 0.4% rise.
3. Personal spending fell 0.2% vs expectations for a 0.1% decline.
4. The ISM manufacturing fell to 52.9, a slight miss and below last month's 53.5
5. Ford sales fell 2%, well below the expectations for a 5.8% gain. GM missed expectations as well.
6. Initial jobless claims came in at 320k, higher than the 295k expected.
7. Average hourly earnings rose 2% y/o/y, still pretty tepid.

The Gender Pay Gap

Posted: 06 Mar 2015 08:30 AM PST

Source: Center for American Progress

What the Fed Will Be Looking at in Today’s Employment Report

Posted: 06 Mar 2015 05:15 AM PST

Today's employment report may be hard to read: The severe weather in the Northeast and Midwest affected the Labor Department's data-collection process. The weather has been so disruptive that department employees can't even get into the office on time to release this morning's report. For the first time ever, it’s being released online.

But as I am so fond of writing, no one monthly report matters very much. Rather, it is the trend of job loss or creation that matters. Toward that end, I will ignore this month’s release and discuss what has been going on during the past 12 months.

I believe there are several areas that warrant your attention, if only for the reason that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is watching them as well.

Continues here

10 Friday AM Reads

Posted: 06 Mar 2015 04:30 AM PST

This has been quite the week. Here are your pre-NFP morning train reads:

• Fees matter more than asset allocation (FT) see also Why You Owe Your Freedom to Jack Bogle (Total Return)
• Number of ultra-rich swells to almost 173,000 (The Guardian)
• Shilling: Look Out Below, Copper’s Falling (BV)
• Fed's Williams: Ready to Consider Rate Rises Starting This Summer (Real Time Economics) see also Six Charts That Tell the Story of the Unfathomably Bleak Economy the Fed Faced in 2009 (Real Time Economics)
• Apple Found Its Newest Billboards On The Internet (BuzzFeed)