Retail Sales: A Reality Slap

Markets have rallied and the common refrain is “the worst is over”. But, “things not sucking that bad” ought not to be the reason for a 20% market rally. We are a long time from being out of the woods…….a long time..

Here is the news…

PPI & Retail Sales numbers from this morning…

But wait…

From the Fed’s Feb. report to Congress

Participants’ projections for the change in real GDP in 2009 had a central tendency of -1.3 to -0.5 percent, compared with the central tendency of -0.2 to 1.1 percent for their projections last October. In explaining these downward revisions, participants referred to the further intensification of the financial crisis and its effect on credit and wealth, the waning of consumer and business confidence, the marked deceleration in global economic activity, and the weakness of incoming data on spending and employment. Participants anticipated a broad-based decline in aggregate output during the first half of this year; they noted that consumer spending would likely be damped by the deterioration in labor markets, the tightness of credit conditions, the continuing decline in house prices, and the recent sharp reduction in stock market wealth, and they saw reductions in consumer demand contributing to further weakness in business investment. However, participants expected that the economy would begin to recover–albeit gradually–during the second half of the year, mainly reflecting the effects of fiscal stimulus and of Federal Reserve measures providing support to credit markets.

Looking further ahead, participants’ growth projections had a central tendency of 2.5 to 3.3 percent for 2010 and 3.8 to 5.0 percent for 2011. Participants generally expected that strains in financial markets would ebb only slowly and hence that the pace of recovery in 2010 would be damped. Nonetheless, participants generally anticipated that real GDP growth would gain further momentum in 2011, reaching a pace that would temporarily exceed their estimates of the longer-run sustainable rate of economic growth and would thereby help reduce the slack in resource utilization. Most participants expected that, absent further shocks, economic growth would eventually converge to a rate of 2.5 to 2.7 percent, reflecting longer-term trends in the growth of productivity and the labor force.

Participants anticipated that labor market conditions would deteriorate substantially further over the course of this year, and nearly all expected that unemployment would still be well above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011. Participants’ projections for the average unemployment rate during the fourth quarter of 2009 had a central tendency of 8.5 to 8.8 percent, markedly higher than last December’s actual unemployment rate of 7.2 percent–the latest available figure at the time of the January FOMC meeting. Nearly all participants’ projections were more than a percentage point higher than their previous forecasts made last October, reflecting the sharp rise in actual unemployment that occurred during the final months of 2008 as well as participants’ weaker outlook for economic activity this year. Most participants anticipated that output growth in 2010 would not be substantially above its longer-run trend rate and hence that unemployment would decline only modestly next year. With economic activity and job creation generally projected to accelerate in 2011, participants anticipated that joblessness would decline more appreciably that year, as is evident from the central tendency of 6.7 to 7.5 percent for their unemployment rate projections. Participants expected that the unemployment rate would decline further after 2011, and most saw it settling in at a rate of 4.8 to 5.0 percent over time.

It was just last October the Fed thought things would be better than they are now. By this summer they were predicting improvement. Now, we are looking at “end of the year”. Soon it will be “early 2010”. Every time the Fed talks, the projection time for recovery gets pushed out.

If the consumer is not spending, it is all moot. We the consumer are 2/3 of all economic activity. Until we begin to spend again, nothing gets appreciably better. Note the Fed projection of 8.5% to 8.8% unemployment for 2009. Um…we are already there as of March. That means the number will get worse and then the forecast the Fed made in February will have to be downgraded again.

With higher taxes coming down the road for those with the greatest ability to spend, one ought not assume that recovery time is right around the corner.

Disclosure (“none” means no position):