Dear New York Times, How's This For "Hard" Economic Data?

03/30/17 01:52PM EDT

There's an uninformed New York Times article today that cites useless Old Wall forecasting sources saying the "divergence" between “soft data” like consumer confidence and “hard data” like retail sales is "stunning."

How's this for "hard" data?

Corporate Profits ramped to +9.3% year-over-year. Recall this TREND of profits #accelerating comes after 5 consecutive quarters of negative year-over-year profit growth.

Beyond corporate profits, equally "stunning" is the claim that seemingly hard data hasn't been accelerating.

  1. Year-over-year Retail Sales hit the highest level since March 2012.
  2. Durable Goods +5% year-over-year growth; Ex-Aircraft & Defense +3.4% year-over-year growth
  3. Capex +2.7% year-over-year growth in FEB (up y/y for 3 months in a row, after a 2yr long #recession)
  4. US Home Prices (Case/Shiller) +0.9% month-over-month and +5.7% year-over-year = 3 year high 

Dear New York Times, How's This For "Hard" Economic Data? - corporate profits 3 30 17

© 2024 Hedgeye Risk Management, LLC. The information contained herein is the property of Hedgeye, which reserves all rights thereto. Redistribution of any part of this information is prohibited without the express written consent of Hedgeye. Hedgeye is not responsible for any errors in or omissions to this information, or for any consequences that may result from the use of this information.