Big Summer Blowout & Riding The Gnarly Inflation Wave!

Some highlights

-> 8 stocks have driven 90% of the S&P 500’s return (but that may be changing)

-> Cost at the fuel pump is up

-> Inflation up just a bit. CPI came in today at +3.2% YoY, so a little bit higher than the June YoY #. We’ll go over those #’s in minute.

-> GDP is up. That’s on $1.5 trillion of government spending. Think of 3 big factors that affect GDP: consumption, investment, and gov’t spending. It’s that last item that has really juiced GDP of late. With the debt ceiling raised, another $1.5 trillion in govt green moved into the system. We mentioned this in our mid-year review and outlook, whereby gov’t spending could be the wild card that boosts the GDP print.

-> Property loans are so unappealing now that banks want to dump them.

-> Consumer sentiment was up in July

-> Credit card use is up substantially

-> US Consumer Credit has reached $1 trillion

-> This at a time when APR’s on credit cards are up

-> Retail sales are way down

-> Home sales way, way down

-> Fitch downgraded the whole US Government