Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
- UPS Delivers 36 Million Packages Tuesday, Double Normal; Sign of Huge Holiday Sales?
- Positive Side of Negativity
- 4th Quarter GDPNow Forecast Plunges to 1.3% Following Housing and Other Data; What's Next?
- New Home Sales Rise Less Than Expected From Revised Sharply Lower October
UPS Delivers 36 Million Packages Tuesday, Double Normal; Sign of Huge Holiday Sales? Posted: 23 Dec 2015 04:24 PM PST Double Normal Christmas is just over a day away. Package delivery is at record volumes. Does that portend a huge Christmas shopping season? Before addressing that question please consider the Supply Chain article UPS Delivers 36 Million Packages - Double Normal. UPS expected to deliver 36 million packages yesterday, double its normal volume, as online retail sales continue to grow during the Christmas season.Sign of Huge Holiday Sales? A huge surge in overall sales remains to be seen. The Supply Chain headline "UPS Delivers 36 Million Packages - Double Normal" sounds exciting, but that is for a single day, not the entire season. The hype is not apparent until one dives into the details. Overall package delivery is up a very healthy 10.3% but is that at the expense of in-store sales? To be sure, there was a splurge of last minute shopping, including some by me. I can point out some gross inefficiencies at the micro-level. I ordered four items a few days ago, of the exact same undisclosed nature (because my wife might be reading this and the presents are for her), all from the same store, and all in the same online order. I received not one package, but four packages, in four different deliveries (morning and afternoon over two days). The deliveries were all rushed, with no delivery charge. Somewhere in this supply chain, there appears to be some gross inefficiencies. Personal anecdotes aside, until we see actual retail sales reports, I am sticking with my forecast that increased online sales will not hugely overpower an otherwise lackluster holiday shopping season. Mike "Mish" Shedlock |
Posted: 23 Dec 2015 12:52 PM PST Being the persistent optimist, I try to look on the bright side of things. Today, lets investigate the "positive side of negativity" as pertains to Spain. In the wake of fragmented Spanish elections that left no political party or coalition with an outright majority, the Socialists Rejected a Deal with Spanish PM. The arduous task of assembling a new government for Spain got off to a bad start on Wednesday after the leader of the Socialist party flatly ruled out any deal with the Popular party of prime minister Mariano Rajoy. Accentuate the Positives
Of course, if PP were to win the next election, Rajoy would be back in office, with points 1-4 negated. Some would view that as positive, others negative. Positivity is in the eyes of the beholder. Mike "Mish" Shedlock |
4th Quarter GDPNow Forecast Plunges to 1.3% Following Housing and Other Data; What's Next? Posted: 23 Dec 2015 10:41 AM PST In the wake of recent data, the 4th quarter GDPNow Forecast dipped to 1.3% from 1.9% on December 16. From the Atlanta Fed: "After yesterday's third-quarter GDP revision and this morning's personal income and outlays release, both from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the nowcast for fourth-quarter real consumer spending growth fell from 2.6 percent to 2.1 percent. The nowcast for real residential investment growth fell from 8.0 percent to 0.9 percent after yesterday's existing-home sales release from the National Association of Realtors." I took one look at recent housing data and concluded GDP would take a big hit vs. prior expectations. And that's precisely what transpired given the oversized plunge in residential growth from 8% to 0.9%. But sometimes things do not turn out as appears intuitively obvious. Such was the case following strong a construction report on December 1 in which the GDPNow model forecast took a dive only to recover on other data later, then plunge as we have seen today. For an explanation as to how this happens, please see Why Does GDPNow Model Sometimes Move Counter to Economic Releases? If Christmas sales are weak, 4th quarter GDP will be flirting with zero. Mike "Mish" Shedlock |
New Home Sales Rise Less Than Expected From Revised Sharply Lower October Posted: 23 Dec 2015 10:06 AM PST November new home sales came at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) of 490,000 vs. an economic consensus of 503,000. Worse yet, October's big gain was revised sharply lower from 495,000 to 470,000. This is going to take a hit out of GDP estimates. Nonetheless Bloomberg manages to spin this as a big positive. Rising construction is bringing supply into the housing sector and helping to lift new home sales, which rose 4.3 percent in November to what is still however a lower-than-expected annualized rate of 490,000. The month-to-month gain follows a very strong 6.3 percent rise in October which, however, has been revised sharply lower to 470,000 from an initial 495,000. Houses for sale rose 5,000 in the month to 232,000 which is up from 210,000 in November last year. At the current sales rate, supply is at 5.7 months which, because of the rise in sales, is down slightly from October. Still, rising permit data point to more homes coming into the market.Synopsis October's gains were revised to+6.3% from an initial reported gain of 10.7%. That would sound good except for the 12.9% plunge in September. Bloomberg claims "new home sales are solid and look to remain solid" but that's puts a bright coat of paint on an a rather dull-looking reality. New Home Sales Volatility makes it hard to precisely determine the trend, but I took a stab in purple. From May 2014 through February of 2015 home sales were generally strengthening. As with manufacturing, the trend has been generally weakening since then. New One Family Homes Sold Does that "look to remain solid"? Is that "solid" in the first place? Mike "Mish" Shedlock |
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