While the Federal Reserve uses POMO to artificially inflate the stock market, reality is sinking in. Are you sitting on the sidelines watching or are you taking action to protect your family and assets?

David DeGerolamo

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

September retail sales were a modest miss: that much was made clear earlier. However, what the market may have missed is that this “miss” was on the back of Department of Commerce’s favorite fudge factor: seasonal adjustments. The 0.1% “decline” in retail sales was for the seasonally adjusted numbers of $426.3 billion in August and $425.9 billion in September. So what happens when one strips away the Arima-X-12 a la carte adjustment which is always and everywhere in the eye of the beholder? Well, this:

More…

Consumer Confidence Plunges Most In 2 Years

Following the lowest UMich confidence print in 2013, Gallup’s economic confidence collapse, and Bloomberg’s index of consumer comfort signaling major concerns among rich and poor in this country (in spite of record highs in stocks), today’s Conference Board Consumer Confidence data  continues to confirm a problem for all those ‘hoping’ for moar multiple expansion. From 80.2 in September, confidence collapsed to 71.2 (the largest MoM drop in 2 years) to its lowest in six months, and notably below expectations. As we have noted in the past a 10 point drop in confidence has historically led to a 2x multiple compression in stocks (which suggests the Fed will need to un-Taper some more to keep the dream alive). Hope for the future dropped to 7-month lows but what is perhaps most intriguing, just as with the Bloomberg surveys, we are seeing the wealthiest cohorts confidence plunging (even as stocks soar to new highs). It would appear the Fed has lost its wealth effect inspiration.

More…