U.S. equity futures held gains and Treasuries retreated after a batch of data showed signs of a slowdown in the American economy – think stagflation – alongside a rise in a key inflation measure.
Richard Henderson for Bloomberg News:
Contracts on the S&P 500 rose amid strong corporate earnings and data showing economic growth slowed more than forecast last quarter, perhaps giving the Federal Reserve reason to consider pausing rate hikes after its next meeting.
Countering that was a reading on inflation that came in higher than expected.
The mixed data follows a strong start to the first-quarter earnings season that had boosted confidence corporate America is coping relatively well with price pressures and policy tightening.
“We are seeing heavier reactions in tech as firms are beginning to bear the fruit of earlier cost efficiencies,” Lewis Grant, senior portfolio manager for global equities at Federated Hermes, wrote in a note to clients. “Investor sentiment remains every bit as fragile as the global economy and earnings season provides much needed visibility on the general health of firms.”
For those of you who are unaware or were not alive during the last bout of stagflation in the last century (mid to late 70’s), let me enlighten you…It ain’t pretty. Stagflation is the combination of slow growth, high prices, and high unemployment. Let me repeat that. Slow Growth, High Prices (inflation), and High Unemployment.
In other words, we have now gone from “bad news is good news” to “bad news may in fact be bad news.” We have gone from being preoccupied about another banking crisis to focusing on the risk of recession (which is what we should always have been focused on frankly).
What did everyone really think was going to happen after 13 years of stimulation and zero interest rates? I said this before and I’ll say it again: It took us 13 years to get here and anyone who thinks we are getting out of this in 12 – 16 months needs to go back to school and study Econ 101, 201 and 301. Then let’s have a conversation.
MacDailyNews Take: The chickens, what’s left of them, always come home to roost eventually.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple is scheduled to report second fiscal quarter results on Thursday, May 4, 2023 after the bell, right around 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET.
As always, we’ll have Apple’s results on May 4th right around 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET. followed by live notes from Apple’s conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.
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You’re well-done… uh… watermelon… uh… wha?
Yes, it seems that U.S. Presidential Elections purchased by Mark Zuckerberg have consequences.
Some major Carteresque pain is required at first, to teach younger voters a valuable lesson, but, when Democrats are finally, rightfully cast into the wilderness for a decade or more, we’ll be able to enjoy the sequel to the The Reagan Revolution!
“anyone who thinks we are getting out of this in 12 – 16 months needs to go back to school and study Econ 101, 201 and 301.”
They don’t teach these classes any longer. Even if they do, it has nothing to do with economics but about social inequity and how math is racist.
For Biden is ok as long as the war machine keeps producing money for the weapons manufacturers .
Joe’s team (or The Team that Joe’s on) is gonna have to get us closer to WWIII by summer ’24 since Covid won’t be providing cover. So far seems to be on track
President Trump was the first president in decades who did not commit the nation to new overseas military campaigns.
Bullshit. He continued military operations in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan before surrendering Afghanistan. He also created a new military base in Saudi Arabia to protect his murderous friend the oil sheik. And if you still think Trump is a dove, then why dis he dramatically increase the deficit with enormous military expenditure? Trumptards only care about spending when there’s a democrat in the white house.
https://original.antiwar.com/mbenjamin/2020/07/01/trumps-record-on-foreign-policy-lost-wars-new-conflicts-and-broken-promises/
Which part of “new overseas military campaigns” didn’t you understand, genius?
How can this be true?! Not 24 hours ago, wHite House BIPOC LBGTQIA2S+++ press spokesthem/they told us that ole’joe has everything under control. Surely it is true!
America elected Biden. Sleep in the bed. Re-elect him if you want. I do not give a shit. All that you see is on him and on you.
Does this graph factor in the Dem’s three-year covid shutdown?
Nice false statistic there. How many of those “created jobs” Biden and the left tout aren’t jobs he created but rather old jobs that are coming back (rehires) thanks to his draconian covid wfh policies?
Biden didn’t create jobs. Those are just shut-down jobs coming back after COVID. And many of those are because people are taking second and third jobs to survive. Despite spending $trillions, Biden still cannot match Trump’s workforce participation rate.
Nearly 95% of all new jobs during Obama era were part-time, or contract
https://www.investing.com/news/economy/nearly-95-of-all-job-growth-during-obama-era-part-time,-contract-work-449057
MDN hasn’t been able to peddle its economic doom & gloom for months. Turns out the party in office now has been able to turn around Trump’s sinking ship. Not that the cult would ever admit how badly their criminal tangerine messiah manages anything.