What me worry?
Am I the only one who finds Friday’s GDP report of 1.2% annualized growth worrying? Especially when combined with a drop in consumer sentiment? What’s bothering me? The deeply disappointing second quarter GDP number was only as good as it was because...Consumer spending picks up in December on faith that income growth is on the way
And in market moving news from somewhere other than Egypt… In the United States consumer spending, which makes up about 70% of U.S. economic activity in the U.S., rose more than forecast in December, according to data released by the Commerce Department on January 31....Li & Fung bets that Beijing is serious about growing China's consumer economy
Li & Fung, the biggest supplier to Wal-Mart, is convinced that China’s leaders will carry through on their talk of shifting the country’s economy toward domestic consumption and away from exports. The company is looking to buy Chinese companies in the fashion,...Beijing moves to reduce the profitability of China's big export companies
Forget about trying to outguess the People’s Bank of China on interest rate increases. On the fundamentals, China’s stocks got more expensive and less attractive for 2011 because of two end-of-the year announcements from the government in Beijing. Each announcement...Shoppers open up their wallets on the first shopping weekend of the holiday retail season
Too early to call it a trend, but the retail shopping numbers over the Thanksgiving weekend that traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season were encouraging to those of us projecting a decent 2% or so increase in retail sales this year. The average U.S....Third quarter U.S. GDP growth got revised up to 2.5%–and consumer spending is growing even faster
Just in case you missed it last week while you were out buying a turkey, the U.S. economy is growing faster than previously estimated. Third quarter GDP growth was actually 2.5%, according to the second estimate of U.S. GDP announced on November 23. The initial read...Where's the hot money going? China–no surprise–and its service sector–surprise
Want to know where all those hot dollars are headed? Looks like a lot of it is winding up in China’s real estate market. No surprise and nothing different there. Foreign direct investment in China’s real estate sector climbed by 48% in the first 10 months of 2010 from...In China's dip it's domestic consumer stocks 1 and overseas export stocks 0
If you only look at U.S. stocks, the equities markets looked calm yesterday, November 17. The Standard & Poor’s 500, for example, was up 0.02%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1%. Quite a contrast to the day before, November 16. But not if you look at...Update Coach (COH)
Coach (COH) has successfully gone global. I think that’s the message in the September quarter results reported on October 26. The company ended its June fiscal 2010 year with 20% of the U.S. handbag market and a 16% market share in Japan. Sales doubled to $100 million...Where corn prices go (and that’s UP), meat prices will follow
The fall out continues from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s shocking turnaround on the size of this year’s corn crop. On Friday October 8 the USDA completely reversed its optimistic September 30 projection of corn production for the year and slashed its estimate...September jobless numbers point to continued weak consumer spending
Disappointing job numbers on Friday, October 8. The government’s monthly payroll figures showed a decline of 95,000 jobs in September. That’s worse than the 57,000-job drop in August. According to Briefing.com, economists had expected the payroll number to be...2% growth in retail sales doesn't sound like much–until you compare it to last Christmas
It’s getting to look a lot like an OK Christmas. The big shipping companies that should know are saying that this holiday shopping season will be decent. Now that may not be enthusiastic enough to set visions of sugar plums dancing in your head, but the retail group...Nestle's got a pile of cash, good growth prospects, and a stock price that's a tad too high
Nestle (NSRGY), the largest food company in the world, continues to slice and dice, in an effort to shed underperforming or low margin businesses and pick up higher growth, higher margin opportunities. Nestle has finished selling its last piece of Alcon, its eye-care...Update Ctrip.com (CTRP)
It’s tempting to say that the 6% drop in Ctrip.com’s (CTRP) shares on August 10 after the company’s August 9 earnings report was just the usual selling on the news by momentum investors who are unhappy that the company only beat Wall Street estimates by 2 cents a...Sell McDonald's (MCD)
McDonald’s (MCD) has put together an extraordinary 2010—so far. But I’m not as excited about the second half of the year, especially not at current share prices. On Monday August 9 McDonald’s announced that global comparable store sales climbed 7% in July from July...Today's retail sales numbers were no where as scary as they seem
There was nothing especially scary in today’s retail sales data. There was certainly nothing very surprising. Yes, I know the headlines played up the 0.5% drop in consumer spending in June. And the fact that this marked the second decline in a row after the 1.1% drop...Core inflation up at just a 0.9% annual rate in May keeping the Fed on hold
No inflation in May. The headline Consumer price Index fell by 0.2%. That’s the second monthly drop in a row after April’s 0.1% decline. Nobody needs to worry about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to fight inflation any time soon. No deflation in May...May core retail sales growth stays positive–barely
Bad news in this morning’s U.S. retail sales number but not as bad as it seems. The all-in, headline number showed retail sales plunging by 1.2% in May from April’s levels. If you discount the downturn that resulted when the cash for clunkers program ended, this is...Update Middleby (MIDD)
Given the mood of the market right now, Middleby’s (MIDD) May 12 earnings report was a perfect storm of bad news. The company missed Wall Street earnings estimates for the first quarter by 8 cents a share and revenue fell by 11.5% from the first quarter of 2009. And...Buy Whirlpool (WHR)
For investors interested in buying shares of Whirlpool (WHR) the recent market rout amounts to a giant rewind. On April 26 Whirlpool (WHR) blew away Wall Street earnings estimates for the first quarter of 2010. Earnings of $2.13 a share came in a full 80 cents above...Update Coach (COH)
Looking for signs that the global consumer is back? You’ll find them in the third quarter fiscal 2010 earnings that Coach (COH) reported before the stock market opened on April 20. The company announced earnings of 50 cents a share, 4 cents a share above Wall Street...So, yes, we've got an economic recovery, but how strong is still an open question
Not so fast, okay? Friday’s news that the U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in March was indeed good news. I think it does mean that an economic recovery is indeed underway. But that’s always been just one of the three big questions about the economy as it recovers from...Update Coach (COH)
I’m filing this update from the beach. I’m on vacation the week of March 29 April 2. Unless the sun stops shining here in the Bahamas (or the kids decide to hire themselves out on a fishing boat), I don’t anticipate filing more than once a day for this week....Coming to a Wal-Mart near you: Inflation from China
Inflation. It’s different this time. It’s still got the same old causes: too much money pumped into the economy, huge economic stimulus that’s causing a shortage of goods and labor in some sectors, budget deficits and long-term debt that’s spiraling out of control and...Credit card charge offs fell in February–at most banks
If the economy is getting better, you’d expect defaults and delinquencies on credit cards to be falling, right? So are they? Is the credit card picture getting better or worse? It’s an important question for the direction of the economy: You can’t expect consumers to...Update PepsiCo (PEP)
On Monday, March 15, 2010, the board of directors at PepsiCo (PEP) announced that the company would raise its dividend by 7% to an annual $1.92 a share from the current $1.80. At the 11:30 price of $65.75 that comes to a yield of 2.9%. The company’s next quarterly...Is China about to start exporting inflation?
Shouldn’t we be seeing more inflation than we are? The anecdotes add up to rising inflation. But you can’t see it in the official numbers. Are the anecdotes misleading? Are the official numbers wrong? Or are we simply looking at a lag between anecdote and official...What's wrong with this picture? Consumer spending up but saving down
The Commerce Department announced today (March 1) that consumer spending rose by 0.5% in January. But that personal income fell by 0.1%. The report pretty much sums up everything that worries me about the economy. It’s great news that consumer spending climbed in...Consumers lag but business confidence builds on recovery
Hmmm. Is that a trend I see in today’s economic numbers? It sure looks like we’re seeing a recovery led by business and manufacturing, and where consumers still lag. Today’s (February 26) revised numbers for U.S. GDP (gross domestic product) show the economy grew at a...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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