"it cut its profit forecast for a second time because of rising fuel costs and weak freight demand. The shares fell the most in 16 months"How important are shipping data? Very important especially with the shopping season coming up and retailers all ready gearing up. The time before thanksgiving is when the most merchandise is moved into stores for sale by the consumer. Less merchandise shipped means less merchandise will be purchased.
This means that the recession is here. Recession is not an evil word. They happen every seven years in the U.S. It just seems like everyone here has problems remembering what things were like 7 years ago. As I recall, the stock market crashed, the fed let the money spigot flow, and things got better. Wash, rinse, repeat as necessary.
Here are some charts:
The consumer discretionary chart is important because it lists the goods which people purchase with their disposable income. I think that it is a great measure of the health of the American consumer. After all, what else does America really do besides consume these days?
It should be noted that when Greenspan was fed chairman, he called the CEO's of the shipping companies such as FedEx and UPS twice per month in order to gauge economic activity. It's too bad that he forgot to turn off the spigot at the end of his tenure. I guess that people are forgetful in their old age.
The final countdown has now passed for the U.S. economy. It is ironic that the Euro is still soaring against the dollar and the band "Europe" wrote the song "The final countdown" over 20 years ago. At least for me, it now makes sense what they were counting down to.
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