RHS News and Press, Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Staples From 09/14/21

AIER’s Leading Indicators Index fell for a fifth consecutive month in August, falling to 58 from 75 in July. The index was at 92 in March. While August marks the twelfth consecutive month above the neutral 50 level, it is also the lowest reading of the past year and the lowest ...

The current slowdown was telegraphed by the bond market, and we’re now in the midst of it. There are any number of reasons to think the economy will just keep fading all the way back to the pre-COVID trend of about 2%. I don’t see any reason to believe we are near recess...

Spending generally increases with income, but not in the naïve lockstep fashion described in economics textbooks. With less debt, people will feel confident spending more. When unemployment, inflation and interest rates are all low, consumers are pretty happy. For furth...

Main Street businesses are those that operate a physical storefront up and down the main streets and side streets of cities and towns all over the world. More than 60 percent of the Main Street businesses that also sell online and use third-party aggregators say that their overall sal...

The 10-year Treasury yield declined a bit during the Afghanistan crisis, so all eyes are now on the Fed to see how new realities will impact monetary policy. The Fed released its latest FOMC minutes, which revealed a disagreement within the FOMC about when QE tapering will begin. On T...

Could the Fed begin paring back asset purchases soon? U.S. July retail sales tick lower. Are consumers still in good shape? 3 key risks to China’s economic outlook. For further details see: Almost Time To Taper? What The Latest Fed Meeting Minutes Reveal

The Wall Street Journal announced that Amazon plans to open “Large Retail Locations Akin to Department Stores”. This news comes at the heels of the latest e-commerce report from the Census Bureau posting record sales of $225 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Dep...

Friday, it was news that US consumer confidence fell 13% from July into August to 70.2 (vs 81.3 expected), the lowest since 2011. Yesterday, it was news that US retail sales for July - purchases at stores, restaurants and online - fell 1.1% compared with June. Today, we learn that...

There is one critical problem for supposing the ever-so-slight calm in inflation mean anything. The Fed’s own argument of the “base effect” now works against it. One of the Fed’s biggest excuses for claiming inflation would be transitory was that most of it...

The chip problem is holding back what is already a monstrously robust (if artificial) sales environment in the auto sector. While the entire retail sector grapples with supply and supply chain issues, outside the automotive segment the rest of it has been far more successful mitigatin...