One leading indicator heads south this week.
Last fall we saw a typical pattern for the first stages of an economic recession. High gas prices created a good deal of anxiety on the part of consumers, whose abrupt slowdown in spending, particularly on motor vehicles, brought GDP growth down from its normal 3.5% annual rate to a 1.7% growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2005. As gas prices came quickly down and the disruptions from the hurricanes were resolved, consumer confidence and spending then rebounded.
With gas here in southern California now up to $3.50 a gallon, it seems prudent to be watching for indications of a replay of the economic performance of last fall.
It’s thus of some concern that the latest value for the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index has fallen back to the low levels we saw last fall. The graph at the right shows this index, along with historical values and shaded areas denoting economic recessions.
Kash Mansori at Angry Bear shares my concerns, though Dave Altig at Macroblog notes that some analysts were cheered by the reasonable April retail sales figures released by the Commerce Department. These show nominal retail sales overall up $1.8 billion in April over March, a 0.5% increase, or whopping 6% at an annual rate. On the other hand, of this $1.8 B increase, $1.6 B came from sales at gasoline stations.
Yes, we know we’re spending more on gas. That’s the worry.
Even so, I agree with Dave that the April sales figures paint a picture that mitigates some of the concern raised by the consumer sentiment survey. At this point, I see these developments as something to follow with concern, but not yet cause for panic.
Looking at that graph – appears there are more false positives than accurate calls… meaning the Consumer Confidence numbers drop but no recession results?
How good of a predictor is this?
I agree, Dryfly, by itself it’s a noisy indicator, so has to be read in conjunction with everything else.
I think consumer confidence is a lagging indicator, if at all.
Actually, I thought there were about three pieces of bad news last week. The weak retail sales (ex fuel), the consumer confidence number and the mounting evidence of air leaving the housing bubble.
Actual and anecdotal evidence of a collapse in the Miami condo market is, I expect, the tip of the iceberg. Evidence of substantial increases in foreclosures, even in states that did not have sharp price run-ups, indicates that many of those millions who refinanced with ARMs, not to mention exotic mortgages, will soon be handing the keys over to the mortgage companies and walking away from their now non-existent home equity.
The combination of rising fuel costs and rising interest rates will have the effect of destroying demand at a much faster pace than is usual in the deceleration of the economy. I believe that the Fed has already gone too far, and will probably be much too slow to reverse.
By the way, we just had the warmest April in North America for over fifty years. Look for natural gas prices to spike sharply as the demand for electicity jumps when all the air conditioners come on.
I don’t see how the retail sales report mitigates concern at all. Ex-gasoline stations, nominal retail sales were up 0.05%, or 0.6% annually, lagging far behind any measure of inflation. In other words, real retail sales were solidly down in April, besides paying at the pump.
(To be fair, retail-sales is often viewed ex-Auto, since auto-related sales are volatile. Ex-Auto, ex-gas stations, retail sales were up 0.2%, or 2.4% annually, arguably keeping pace with inflation. So, best case, real retail sales were flat in April, except gas.)
Of course, these are monthly blips with wide margins of error. But to the degree that we pay attention to month-to-month preliminary report astrology, it’s hard to see how April retail sales can be viewed very positively.
Another bearish indicator is the growth rate of M2 which has been de-celerating for several months now.
I viewed the retail sales report as favorable for the economy. Yes, gasoline sales accounted for most of the reported increase, but sales at building supply stores accounted for most of the sluggishness elsewhere. The decline of 1.6 percent in activity at building supply stores was most likely a small offset to remarkable gains in the early months of the year. Activity at building supply stores was still up 13 percent year-over-year. Sales at stores dealing with discretionary items — furniture, clothing, sporting goods, restaurant meals, general merchandise — did quite well, growing 0.5 percent collectively and buildingh on strong trends.
Mike — Seems like a fair cop… Ex-Gas Stations-and-Building-Materials, retail sales are were up ~0.2%, about keeping pace with inflation. Ex-Gas Stations-and-Building-Materials-and-Autos, we get to your about +0.5% for, um, “normal stuff”, which looks pretty good. And building materials have been really volatile.
Someone (too lazy to be me!) ought to start calculating trimmed mean or medians, it’s too easy to make the numbers dance when just picking what to count and what not to…
Steve,
You pointed to a pretty good trimmed series yourself, though not a mean. You can then do a 3-month average to smooth ex-gasoline, cars a building materials a bit more, and voila!, a core sales figure that you can live with. I doubt you could one could do much better than this, especially given that revisions will change the answer, anyway.
Another indicator-the number of filings of new IPO’s on Friday was the highest since 1990.
In some ways we may be SHORT-CHANGING OUR NEXT GENERATION, but blaming it on others will not make it better. Acquiring knowledge and taking action is an individual responsibility.
Consumer confidence spending
I laugh when I see highly qualified people discusses the consumer confidence, just like we saying that there r ample amounts of bucks ready to be spent American r so rich and don’t know what to do with their money, while poor American has no $ to spare. Japan alone claims over $7000 from each Americans, each person have to pay the foreigners at lest $33, ooo as the government debt, just read these 12 points:
12 SERIOUS QUESTIONS covered by this Report Series
While we celebrate many things, such as longer life expectancy, a nation not at war, and more consumer choices – – IS IT FAIR TO FAMILIES and their CHILDREN TO INHERIT ANY OF THE FOLLOWING 12 ITEMS – – instead of our fixing them ?
http://mwhodges.home.att.net/summary-a.htm
If u love America u will read this report and please be honest, and let us know how and where public confidence can be corrected?
Is it by the huge profit of corporations?
The Corporation
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Or do we have to bring public confidence when he see the debt clock, where the government spending more than it’s create just watch and let the readers know of this:
http://www.toptips.com/debtclock.html
USA only borrow min$ 3 to over $5 Millions per min, and we asking the poor consumers confidence, while the oil companies
Consumer sentiment looks a bit worrying
Econbrowser just posted “Early indications of trouble“. Keep an eye on this, as it is often a leading indicator of recession. Even better, add the RSS feed for Econbrowser to your aggregator.
Even so, I agree with Dave that the April sale…
The real threat is with in, America is about to collapse economically and this yr, please read this article, its a long one but worth reading , the prediction is that America will not be the same before December 2006, are you ready to confront the reality?
all the cabals either transferring or transferred their wealth out side America, they will leave those SHEEP like us behind, so what else you want to know, come back to the reality of the earth, and see what is happening under yr or our nose, and let Iran and rest of the world?
The problems American does not know America as much the rest of the world knows the rest?
Until we know America 1st than we can compare ourselves with others, Americans are on the brink of collapse but not all lost if u read this article, it has very valuable concrete criticism, and practical solution if we implement them
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Federal Reserve, new Fed-master Bernacke has the printing presses running at warp-speed. The soaring price of oil has soaked up more than a trillion dollars of freshly-minted fiat currency, but it?s the only thing that’s kept the greenback from slipping beneath the waves. Unfortunately, that trick won?t last forever.
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