Takeaway: To hike or not to hike, that is the question all Fed officials are pondering at the moment. Let's look at the data.

Is The Yellen Fed Truly "Data Dependent"? - Yellen data dependent cartoon 11.18.2015

"What's really changed, economically, since stocks crashed last time?" Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough wrote earlier today. "Dovish (not hawkish) Fed." In short, the only thing keeping stocks up at this point is bad economic data and the perennial hope that Yellen will get dovish once again.

On that front and For those of you keeping score...

  • Q2 GDP: 1.1%
  • July Existing Home Sales (90% of Housing): -1.6%
  • GM and Ford Sales -5-8%

This is all clean cut rate hike "data," right?

It gets worse. Add another terrible economic data point to that list today with an ISM print of 49.4 in August. Quick quetsion: Is the Fed out to lunch with its hawkish outlook?

You bet.

Is The Yellen Fed Truly "Data Dependent"? - ism manufacturing

To hike or not to hike, that is the question all Fed officials are pondering at the moment.

You know where we stand on that.

However, With all this ugly data, one thing is certain...