JHMC News and Press, John Hancock Multifactor Consumer Discretionary From 05/19/22

Consumer sentiment has dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade. Average hourly earnings have risen by 5.5% over the last year. It appears Americans have taken on an “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” attitude. For further details see: W...

Target followed in the footsteps of Walmart with its worst single-day reaction to earnings on record according to the data in our Earnings Explorer, and its worst day overall since the 1987 crash. Given the two are some of the largest publically traded retailers, broad measures of the...

However American consumers may feel, retail sales continue to climb. The Census Bureau’s latest data show solid gains outside of the virtual shopping malls, too. Headline sales (seasonally adjusted) rose much more than expected in April 2022, increasing 0.9% from March’s...

Retail sales jumped 0.9% in April from March, after having jumped 1.4% in March from February, to $678 billion, and were up 8.2% from a year ago, seasonally adjusted, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday. Raging inflation has outpaced the income growth of many Americans, and th...

In real terms, total retail sales were up 0.6 percent following a 0.2 percent increase in March and are now showing stronger upward trends. Nonstore retailers and automotive retailers followed with 2.2 percent increases, while food services and drinking establishments (restaurants) ha...

A significant decline in the US retail footprint is imminent as sales continue to shift online, turbocharging the next leg of digital advertising spending in the US. Although the US e-commerce penetration scaled from less than 5% of total retail sales in 2011 to nearly 14% in 2021, it...

Consumer spending rose by 2.7% in Q1, annual rate, adjusted for raging inflation. Gross private domestic investment rose by 2.3% annualized, following the spectacular spike in Q4. Less-catastrophic imports, thereby a less-catastrophic trade deficit, will reduce the drag on GDP. ...

A buy limit order I had set for Ford executed Thursday at $12.25. This was the third of four tranches I’ve purchased for the position. Wells Fargo did me a favor by double-downgrading the stock and slashing the price target from $24 to $12. This caused the stock to sell off...

In addition to rampant inflation in the price of grain and other foodstuffs, the markets are seeing a major supply shortfall of cooking oils, including sunflower and palm oils, that is causing their prices to surge as well. Looking ahead to Q2 2022, 15 retailers issued negative preann...

AIER’s Lagging Indicators index was unchanged for the third consecutive month, holding at 83 in April. Real gross domestic product fell at a 1.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter versus a 6.9 percent rate of gain in the fourth quarter. The median sales price of a...