Brief Explanation

Blue World Economic Index®

Scale: -2 to +2

Release Date:  Usually the Last or First Business Day of Each Month

Release Site: www.blueworldassetmanagers.com

Management Value: Critical

Date October 3, 2017

Analysis

The economy’s flirtation with a positive reading is as tantalizing as a butter-seared, blood-rare Porterhouse, wild rice and a snifter of cognac is to me on a Saturday night! TMI? Apologies.

The Blue World Economic Index® made a solid move from -.4 to -.1 for the month of September 2017. It must be noted that looking at a lot of the reports would suggest bigger changes from last month in either direction, but we exercised a bit more restraint due to the awareness of the continued but temporary impact of the active hurricane season. There was also a material impact from short and long-term trend upgrades in GDP from -1 to -.5 because the trends are weighted more heavily than the current month’s report.

That said, we expected worse from the hurricanes, especially in reports that post in the second half of the month, and the consumer appears to have already gotten over it. Below we’ll talk about weakness in Real Estate, but there is a lot of thinking out there that the weakness represents a short-term rebalancing and may be a harbinger of better things to come later next year. The Chicago Fed has been the only contrarian in the Fed sub-group two months in a row, which is a bit perplexing and concerning since that report is uniquely national in scope rather than regional like the others we follow for that group, and the regionals are knocking the cover off the ball.

December Fed meeting, you ask? The late entries of Personal Income and Outlays, Farm Prices, and GDP Inflation coupled with the mid-month reports of Producer Price Index-Final Demand and the Consumer Price Index all suggest inflation still resides in the where-are-they-now-file, but there are, as we’ve said, some other positives. We think there are arguments for the doves and hawks, but we are taking the under this month and saying we’ve seen the last of the hikes for 2017. 

The Numbers

Of the eight major categories, five are still above water. They are Consumer, General, Manufacturing, Real Estate, and Retail. Of those, all but one, Real Estate, posted gains since last month, but recall some of the conflicting signals in Retail where negative scores for Motor Vehicle Sales and Retail Sales were cancelled out by equal and opposite scores in Business Inventories and E-Retail, leaving the notoriously contrarian Red Book report to carry the ball. Manufacturing continues to excite with the Fed AND non-Fed groups advancing .03. Employment and Inflation are still underwater, where Employment slipped fractionally, but Inflation, while improved .11, is still solidly negative at -.37. Services remained unchanged at -.16.

We’ll see what else the hurricanes have to offer the fourth quarter, and with high stakes policy issues like tax reform coming up we see volatility and excitement from street level to Wall Street on tap!

The Blue World Jobs Report Analysis will post on Friday. Have a great October, a wonderful Halloween and we’ll see you back here at the opening of November.

Every effort is made to ensure accuracy of data transcription but accuracy cannot be guaranteed.  The official release sites should be cross referenced.  The index assignments represent the opinion of Blue World Asset Managers, Ltd. who does not warrant or guarantee predictions based on the index.

©Blue World Asset Managers, LTD Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Brief Explanation

Blue World Economic Index®

Scale: -2 to +2

Release Date:  Usually the Last or First Business Day of Each Month

Release Site: www.blueworldassetmanagers.com

Management Value: Critical

Date 8/31/2017

Analysis

“Objective Signs of Life” is the theme for August 2017, according to the Blue World Economic Index® as we moved a full .05 from -.09 to -.04! After a rather slow start to the month things really started to heat up fast. Inflation and Real Estate were the only real drags on the index for August, especially Housing Starts and Permits, which suffered an oversized and uncomfortable swing from 1 to -.5 on the 16^th. That kind of move is rare. Industrial Production ended a streak of positive hard data in Manufacturing, but at least it was the exception not the rule and maybe a blip, as the Philly Fed report is still in high orbit. That brings us the Chicago Fed National Activity Index, which took an unexpected drop considering the strength of every other regional Fed report in the month. Ultimately, four out of six hard data reports in Manufacturing were positive for August so the unbridled optimism of the last nine months may finally be translating to objective improvement. We’ll have to see if it holds.

The Numbers

Five out of the Eight Major Categories remained flat or gained ground including Consumer, Employment, General Measures, Manufacturing and Retail. Employment was the big winner in this group gaining an eye-popping .31. The Retail bump (.29) has to be viewed with some caution as conflicting reports are pulled up by reports that are often contrarian and/or volatile. Inflation and Services lost fractionally, and Real Estate led the decliners by losing a full .2.

Tomorrow is jobs report Friday, and our report is expected out before Noon Eastern. We’ll see you back here at the close of September and hope to report another move to the North.

Have a safe and wonderful Labor Day!

Every effort is made to ensure accuracy of data transcription but accuracy cannot be guaranteed.  The official release sites should be cross referenced.  The index assignments represent the opinion of Blue World Asset Managers, Ltd. who does not warrant or guarantee predictions based on the index.

©Blue World Asset Managers, LTD Thursday, August 31, 2017

Blue World Economic Index®

Scale: -2 to +2

Release Date:  Usually the Last or First Business Day of Each Month

Release Site: www.blueworldassetmanagers.com

Management Value: Critical

Release Site: www.blueworldassetmanagers.com

Brief Explanation

Date: Friday, July 7, 2017

Brain Surgery is not Rocket Science to a Brain Surgeon©

Rate hike? REALLY?

Wow, we’ve seen some speculative moves in our day, but this one is worthy of commodity speculators!! We thought either we missed something or they are betting the come. Of course, we know it’s not the former! The notes essentially confirm their decision is based on what they think will happen as opposed to what is happening. Most notably, they think with the Labor Market “strengthening” consumers will start spending soon and that coupled with wage acceleration will drive inflation. Those are some high odds bets considering nine years of flat “expansion.” Gotta love dem “experts! ”

Let’s look at what’s really happening. The BWEI® Composite pulled back from -07 to an even -.1. Deterioration was led by Employment (-.21) and Inflation (-.14) GOTTA LOVE DEM EXPERTS!! (Apologies for the outburst…) There were fractional declines in Consumer Measures and Real Estate with Manufacturing holding unchanged at the Category Composite and Fed sub-group. Minor gains were seen in General Measures and Retail, although the retail improvement was led by the Red Book weekly report which is notoriously contrarian with other retail metrics. The most substantial move to the upside was Services at a .11 pickup.

Rate hike? We think it a seriously big bet, especially as the talk of recession and market meltdowns is being broadcast from Marshall stacks.

We’ll see!

Matt will be on WBBM in Chicago to talk about the June jobs report at 12:09C. The report is up here.

Have a great month and we’ll meet back here in August 2017.

Every effort is made to ensure accuracy of data transcription but accuracy cannot be guaranteed.  The official release sites should be cross referenced.  The index assignments represent the opinion of Blue World Asset Managers, Ltd. who does not warrant or guarantee predictions based on the index.

©Blue World Asset Managers, LTD Friday, 7/7/2017