Editor's Note: Below is a brief excerpt from today's Early Look written by Hedgeye U.S. Macro analyst Christian Drake.
"Tracking spending on luxury goods offers us a proxy read on the state of high-ticket discretionary consumption – a not insignificant factor as the top 20% of income earners account for over 40% of consumer spending.
After collapsing for 2 years into mid-2016 alongside stagnant asset price growth, high ticket discretionary consumption has, indeed, reaccelerated on a short lag to resurgent equity price reflation.
With the S&P500 up 12.2% (vs 2016 avg price), Luxury consumption is tracking +5.5% YoY for the YTD and growing at its strongest pace since 2014.
We still like long-the-rich as a theme, for now."
