Posted on 10/15/2015 12:30:21 AM PDT by SaveFerris
Overall sales growth below forecasts and sales excluding cars and petrol flat
When the going gets tough, investors have grown used to betting on the tough going shopping. Every wobble of the past few years saw the consumer ignoring currency collapses, geopolitics and even government brushes with bankruptcy, and instead heading for the mall.
The same has been true this year. The best-performing stocks in the US, UK and eurozone are in the defensive consumer staples and the racier consumer discretionary sectors. Almost no other sectors managed to make money, at least in dollar terms. Even in emerging markets, over the past six months consumer stocks have been the best performers, although they still fell.
It is not just the stock market that has relied on consumers. The world has been looking to the US to provide an economic lead, and US growth has come mainly from consumption (recently investment has been OK, too).
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
later in the article:
"But there is evidence to support a more positive view, too: the strong jobs market"
Strong jobs market? Yeah, LOL.
Just wait until they raise Interest Rates, kaboom.
I think it will happen the moment a Republican is sworn in as President.
[Just wait until they raise Interest Rates, kaboom.]
I agree. This may be why the GOPe is trying to lose with the guaranteed loser, Jeb Bush. If it doesn’t blow up by the election, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t, it most certainly will in the early days of the next President.
The charades of the past 7 years, especially, will be laid bare. If they’re stupid enough to try and raise rates, it will start the cycle, IMHO, that they won’t be able to back out of no matter what they try. Few have discretionary income and some, I think, are betting on their 401k’s paper value.
I still meet people who think it’s 2003-2004 out there. Nothing could be further from the truth. Things were quite a bit harder even then, but it’s far and away different from now.
In CA I refuse to aid punitive government taxes as much as possible and we only purchase what is absolutely necessary.
Let the illegals support the corrupt deviates running state government.
Any city raises taxes near me, on the rare occasion I can shop, I shop less and only if necessary in those places.
Its not the will to go shopping I lost, just the funds to do it with... I unlike our government, cant spend what I don’t have!
Yeah, me too. Except for a really brief period last year.
Then, WalMart (yes) had a shotgun I wanted on a Black Friday sale, about another 20% off of a price that was $30 cheaper than other Wal-Mart stores (and their current price).
It had just been put out that day. So it was coming home with me. Of course I didn’t know how briefly I was going to be able to be a consumer. All I did was lock it away anyways, LOL.
US consumers, caught between government-stimulated inflation, government-stimulated rises in healthcare costs, government taxation, and an endless variety of Obama’s Marxist intrusions into business and private life no longer have the CASH to shop.
People are spending their money on traveling. With gas prices so low they are trapping all over the United States. Why be in a store when you can be on the beach? I know this is not the beach but Disney World in Orlando was packed to the limit the 10 days I was there with the family. Vacations are the hot thing to do this year. Nobody wants to be in a stuffy store.
the interest rates are ridiculously low. It should be a crime to keep them that low. It is fake. And yes they will rise under Republicans which will continue the tale of Democratic Party is better for the economy then Republicans. The only one that screwed up any economy was Bush II and we paid dearly for it for 8 years of Obama.
EVERY money/finance report, no matter the source, is inventing plot to justify ... they really aren't sure WHAT'S happening nor what to do about it.
I've come to believe the unemployment rate in the US is closer to 30% than not
That people are buying what they need because of the fear foisted on us by a political world that no longer makes sense
The only stable thing people can hang their hat on is the faith they have developed in Donald Trump ... merely because they believe him when he says he's gonna' make America great again
The devil is in the details and we HEAR the words that seem to make sense and that they will work ... but there is a nagging understanding that there is an enemy SO intent on destroying us as a free nation ... and subliminally we're beginning to suspect we are already neutered ...
There will be no Mussolini take-down, no Ceausescu ... not that we want to be monsters .... but we want the attack to end ... and I'm afraid we don't have the will to kill
Politics is our only hope at this time ... and because that is almost a religion (we want to BELIEVE something good will happen), the financial world is also a faith and a religion
I've been reading for a couple of years that there was a big unstoppable change coming
I haven't seen it, but I think more IS coming at us
Without jobs there is no ability to care for yourself and your family ...
outside of a government that has no money, nor the food, clothing and housing one needs to live
Damn ... I wish I had stayed asleep and not come in here
I’d say at least 30% at this point. I also don’t believe Yellen was ill. Other than the nonsense she was reading was perhaps taking a toll.
Also, they seem to expect people to go out and spend with income now at a 30 hour work week level and with healthcare expenses that have doubled or tripled.
FAT FRICKIN CHANCE!
The country is being dismantled on purpose.
If the Fed raises rates, they have to spend more on the debt so they’ll have to print more money so they have more money to spend on the debt while less money comes in from taxpayers.
My guess is they’ll try another QE if things start falling. What else could they do? Well, there’s negative interest rates. Oh yeah, that will get it going.
Yes. You’ll find posts where they say it’s not him. It absolutely is him. Oh, it got started before him. But he’s done virtually everything wrong that there could be.
Too bad the twenty-somethings aren’t bright enough to figure out that Bernie Sanders is promising cash that will never be there and Hillary is promising to do more of the (current) same.
Either way, this financial house of cards, no HBO pun intended, is teetering.
It might be that because interest rates have been near-0% for so long that it might be a factor in people holding back on some spending. Then there's the consumer money being diverted to increased medical expenses. Then there's, (I wonder if it's significant) hording of silver and other assets because of worries about the future. Then there's those at or near retirement holding back on spending for fear that savings aren't adequate for their futures, and there's no safe way to grow them.
Some would argue that a healthy economy cannot be sustained if there isn't a meaningful interest rate paid on safe savings.
Every one is "happy", "hip", or uses rapid fire speech. Or they are over the top in their behavior.
It is like be bombarded by witchcraft.
The country is a mess, yet the advertisers try and tell us everything is snappy and sarcastically hilarious.
I like the “tiny” homes - of 250 to 400 square feet.
FOR $40,000 to $80,000 or so. Good gosh, might as well buy a regular trailer home.
Yes, and there are a lot of leftist agendas woven into advertising. About a week ago I got a “be a good global citizen” text on my cellphone. Good gosh.
I have to close an account, the one for emergency expenses that don't fit in my monthly budget. The local bank where it is, besides having an interest rate of near-zero, now is charging fees to anyone whose total at the bank isn't at least $25,000!! For a majority of the population, that's even worse than negative interest, because the fee stays the same even for small accounts. How will anyone ever start saving if the bank takes a chunk of their money each month? Might be better to have some cash and metals well concealed and nearby.
Last I knew, the head honchos at the bank were still making fortunes and they were still financing unnecessary construction projects for established large-contractor buddies. Given all that, I'm wondering if a part of the economy is going underground.
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