Yes, Consumer Sentiment scored a walloping 74, only 62 % off the highs of 2008, while pending home sales scored a terrific negative 11.6 percent for the month, only 65% off the 2005 highs. Of course, markets are shooting higher at this tremendously good news.
Meanwhile, sourpuss John Williams of Shadowstats sums up yesterday's GDP report thusly: (remember though, this guy's a major league Frownie Freddy! So don't read this if you want to smile, smile, smile.)
"Though Aggregate Growth Appeared Unchanged, Underlying First-Quarter GDP Trends Shifted to the Negative in Revision. The first-quarter 2011 GDP revision was minimal, with annualized 1.8% real growth unchanged at the first decimal point. The updated reporting to this most worthless of major economic series, however, reflected weaker personal consumption than initially estimated, offset by a greater, involuntary build-up in inventories. Net of the increased nonfarm inventories, growth was a revised annualized 0.56% (previously 0.75%); on a straight quarter-to-quarter basis that was a non-annualized quarterly gain of 0.14%. Further, the sharp deterioration reported in the inflation-adjusted first-quarter 2011 trade deficit still did not surface in the first-quarter GDP estimate. Nonetheless the growth pattern likely is being set for the “broadest” measure of U.S. economic activity to slip slowly into double-dip recession status. That pattern should be exacerbated in the months ahead as key underlying series continue to slow, and as the July 29th annual GDP revisions show recent economic history to have been weaker than currently assumed by the markets."
No comments:
Post a Comment