Posted on 05/30/2013 7:23:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Edited on 05/30/2013 7:52:48 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
The U.S. economy grew at a slightly slower pace than initially estimated in the first quarter and corporate profits shrank during the period, indicative of the lackluster recovery.
Meanwhile, the number of U.S. workers seeking first-time unemployment benefits rose for the third time in four weeks, increasing by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 354,000 in the week ended May 25, indicating the labor market may have lost steam.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It’s Thursday fun with jobless claims numbers once again...
UNEXPECTEDLY -— THERE, I SAID IT FIRST.
I really wish they would stop using the word “recovery”. I do not believe we have “recovered”. I am old enough to have been through quite a few of these “downturns”, and this is not a recovery.
The nation’s gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the economy.
Those statistics are bogus.
“The U.S. economy grew at a slightly slower pace than initially estimated in the first quarter and corporate profits shrank during the period, indicative of the lackluster recovery.”
LOL, must be time to lower the unemployment rate again.
Summer of Recovery V4.0.....
.... or is it V5.0?
From your keyboard to the low information voters, I pray.
‘Profits shrank’
So did Revenues!!!!
Some notables:
Some high profile names Q1 misses on revenue:
Target - “Sales rose 1 percent to $16.7 billion, trailing the $16.8 billion average estimate.”
Dell - Revenue down 2% YTY for Q1.
Intel - “Intel’s semiconductor sales in the first quarter were US$11.56 billion, a 3 percent drop from the $11.87 billion in the first quarter of 2012.”
HP : “Hewlett-Packard Co.’s (HPQ) fiscal second-quarter earnings slipped 32% as the technology company recorded revenue declines across its segments, though core profits beat its expectations.”
IBM - “Total revenues of $23.4 billion were also below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $24.5 billion.” Note that IBM revenue was $24.7B for Q1 2012. So revenue missed estimate and was over $1B lower in Q1 2013 than Q1 2012.
Sears - “Revenue fell 9 percent to $8.45 billion, missing the $8.74 billion forecast by Thomson Reuters analysts.”
Walmart - “Sales rose 1 percent to $113.43 billion. That figure excludes Sam’s Club membership fees. The results fell short of Wall Street expectations for earnings of $1.15 per share on revenue of $115.78 billion. Wal-Mart reported a 1.4 percent drop in revenue at stores open at least a year at its namesake business, its first drop in a year and a half.” Though sales were up (barely) they missed target by over $2B!
GM - “Net revenue in the first quarter of 2013 was $36.9 billion, compared to $37.8 billion in the first quarter of 2012.” Down YTY by almost a $1B.
Revenue is what drives jobs. Revenues were lousy in Q1 for a lot of companies.
So this is why the dow is up 70 points today!
Has the unemployment rate hit 2% yet? /s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s!
“So this is why the dow is up 70 points today?”
Bad economy and therefore Bernanke keeps printing funny money.
Jeez, none of that stuff every made it to a news broadcast that I listen to. Things are hunky dunky for as far as the eye can see. Or so they say. Stocks up. Housing prices up. Sounds like the results of flooding the economy with ersatz money, if you ask me.
Happy days....
The Dow is legalized gambling that has little to do with the actual economy.
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