Crude oil prices are at decadal lows, the unemployment
rate is at/below 5%, median home prices are near all-time highs, annual consumer
inflation is below 1%. Sounds like “good times rolling,”
right? Yet, U.S. corporations are on track to release a third consecutive
quarter of year-over-year (YoY) declines in earnings
and profits;
U.S. gross
domestic product (GDP) has grown at an average annualized rate of only 1.9%
over the last five quarters, and major U.S. stock market indices have “tanked”
(e.g., Nasdaq:
-14.5%) since the beginning of 2016. Who saw that coming?
Snow blindness is a condition in which a
person temporarily cannot see due to exposure to intense UV light. Such
exposure can occur when sunlight reflects off snow (hence its name), or if
proper eye protection is not worn when welding. By analogy it can also occur
when individuals are inundated with incomplete information spun to sound positive
(“snow”), temporarily blinding them to the realities on the ground. We
interpret the year-over-year corporate earnings declines, sluggish U.S. GDP
growth, and the recent stock market declines as emerging realities. In
addition...
The Macro Pulse blog is a
commentary about recent economic developments affecting the forest products
industry. The monthly Macro Pulse
newsletter typically summarizes the previous 30 days of commentary available on
this website.
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