All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are up after strong retail sales numbers. Bonds and MBS are flat. The German Bund hit a new low this morning, trading at negative 66 basis points.

Strong retail sales numbers out this morning. The headline number was up 0.7%, well above the Street expectations of 0.4%. The control group, which strips out volatile gas and autos, was up 1.0% MOM, exceeding the Street estimate by 0.7%. Note that Trump’s delay of Chinese tariffs means they won’t hit until mid-December, or after the holiday shopping season. These numbers bode well for the back-to-school shopping season, which is the second most important of the year. Note that Walmart also reported strong numbers this morning, another bellwether for the retail sector. Expect strategists to take up their GDP estimates on these figures.

In other economic news, initial jobless claims rose to 220,000 last week, while industrial production fell 0.2% MOM and rose half a percent YOY. Capacity Utilization fell to 77.5%. The industrial and manufacturing numbers are probably influenced by trade.

Productivity rose 2.3% in the second quarter, way more than expectations as output rose 1.9%, hours worked fell 0.4% and compensation rose 4.8%. The biggest surprise however came in the revisions, where compensation in the first quarter was revised upward from -1.5% to +5.5%! These are inflation-adjusted numbers, so we had real compensation growth of 5.2% in the first half of the year. Where was the growth strongest? Manufacturing.

With the inversion of the yield curve, the business press is chattering about an imminent recession. Don’t buy it. Most of them are talking their partisan book and are sticking with their preferred narrative: (Trump’s trade war is causing a recession!). It helps that it is the most convenient and easy to explain scenario, and let’s face it: it is hard to talk about overseas interest rates when most journalists wouldn’t know a Bund if it bit them in the begonias. Reality check: you generally don’t get recessions with a dovish Fed, unemployment at 50 year lows, strong consumer spending and accelerating wage growth. In fact, the bullish case is that with strong wage growth, overseas deflation keeping inflation in check, and a dovish Fed, you could see a scenario similar to the mid / late 90s. Food for thought.

The new FHA guidance for condos is available in its unpublished form here. The new rule will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register (which should be any day now) and will make more condos eligible for FHA insurance.

Home prices rose 3% in July, according to Redfin. “July home prices and sales were weaker than I had expected, especially given that falling mortgage rates have been luring homebuyers back to the market since early spring,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Even though we’ve seen increased interest from homebuyers—especially compared to a year ago when mortgage rates were climbing—uncertainties in the overall economy and talk of a looming recession have people feeling jittery about making a huge purchase and investment. But I think the odds are that we won’t see a recession within the next year. If rates stay low and the economy continues to grow, we’ll see more homebuyers come back in a serious way in 2020, and the market will be much more competitive.” Home sales were down 3.4%, while supply fell by the same amount. In terms of price, the previously hot markets of San Jose and Seattle fell, while many of the laggards (like Cleveland and Rochester) rose.

Filed under: Economy, Morning Report |