Surprise! Citi Economic Surprise Index Rises To Highest Level Since April On Crumbling Economy (10Y Treasury Yield Highest Since August)

The US economy is crumbing down under Biden/Harris. No, the economy doesn’t hurt so good.

The Citi Economic Surprise Index just rose to its highest level since April.

The 10Y Treasury yield just rose to its highest level since August.

US Housing Starts & Building Permits Plunge In September (Down -0.7% YoY)

September! Or Get Down!

Housing starts dropped -0.7% YoY in September.

After surprising top the upside in August, Housing Starts and Building Permits disappointed in September, declining more than expected (-0.5% MoM and -2.9% MoM respectively)…

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood, multi-family permits plunged 10.8% MoM (and multi-family starts dropped for the second straight month). Single-family starts rose 2.7% MoM and permiots inchjed higher by 0.3% MoM…

Source: Bloomberg

Rate-cut expectations appear to have taken the excitement out of the building market…

Source: Bloomberg

Housing Completions also dropped (but the BLS thinks construction jobs continue to rise non-stop)…

Source: Bloomberg

So, The Fed cuts short-term rates… mortgage-rates rise… and builders slow their building plans… that’s not how it’s supposed to work!

Cottage Cheese? Mortgage Applications Down 17% Since Last Week, Purchase Applications Down -60% Under Biden/Harris (Housing Prices Up 34.2% Under Biden/Harris While Mortgage Rates Up 138.6%)

I would like to see Kamala Harris explain why mortgage purchase applications are down -60% under Biden/Harris Presidency. Other than a word salad answer. Or Cottage Cheese.

Mortgage applications decreased 17.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending October 11, 2024.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 17.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 17 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent compared with the previous week and was 7 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index decreased 26 percent from the previous week and was 111 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

Housing prices are up 34.2% under Biden/Harris while mortgage rates are up 138.6%.

The Obama/Biden/Harris Economic Model: Spend Trillions, Borrow Trillions, Hire Gov’t Workers (Hand Our Grandchildren The HUGE Bill)

There have been to significant jumps in the Federal Debt. The first coming after the financial crisis of 2008 and election of Obama/Biden in 2008. The second with the outbreak of Covid in 2020 and the election of Biden/Harris in 2021.

The Federal (public) debt was just over $10 million when Obama/Biden were elected and it now stands at a staggering $35.7 trillion. That represents over a tripling of the Federal debt under Obama/Biden/Harris. So when asked what she would do diffeerent than Biden, Harris replied “Nothing comes to mind.” That means MORE spending, MORE debt and MORE unproductive Government jobs.

Here is a chart of public debt and GDP under the triumvirate of Obama, Biden and Harris. No, not Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus). But it is feeling like the Roman Empire prior to its collapse.

Here is a chart of government jobs and government expenditures. Great for government workers, bad for everyone else.

Of course, SOMEBODY has to pay the growing gov’t debt burden. Rest assured it won’t be Obama/Biden/Harris.

Here is Obama holding court.

Debate Question: How Will Harris Or Trump Deal With $650K Per Citizen In Unfunded Liabilites? Or National Debt Of $36 TRILLION ($271K Per Taxpayer)??

The Presidential and Vice Presidential debates thus far feature weak moderators asking lame questions. For example, there are still 97 hostages stll held by Hamas and what would the candidates do to get them released? (Hint: Trump/Vance would have sensible responses. Harris would just laugh and say she was raised in a middle class family and Walz would look like a deer in the headlights. Then we have national debt of $36 trillion, $271K per taxpayer.

But the hidden bomb that will never be discussed is unfunded liabilities (entitlements) such as Social Security and Medicare. Currently, unfunded liabilities are $219 TRILLION or $650K per citizen.

Of course, Biden/Harris have let the southern border wide open to criminals and uneducated Democrat voters who will voter for MORE entitlements.

So, when will the lame debate moderators ask HARD questions? And can Harris attempt to answer one hard question without laughing or falling back on lame “I was raised in a middle-class household.” etc.

US Jobs Surge! BIG Fed Policy Error Or Gov’t Election Manipiulation? (785,000 Gov’t Workers Added In September)

It turns out that Powell’s “emergency” 50bps rate cut was – drumroll – another major policy mistake by the Fed. Or it is Presidential election interference by The Biden/Harris Administration giving Cacklin’ Kamala as talking point?

Moments ago, the BLS reported that at a time when prevailing consensus was for jobs to continue their recent downward slide sparked by the near-record annual jobs revision and several months of downbeat jobs reports, in September the US unexpectedly added a whopping 254K jobs, the biggest monthly increase since March…

… and above the highest estimate (which as noted last night was from Jefferies at 220K). In fact, the number was a 4-sigma beat to the median estimate!

There’s more: unlike previous months where we saw repeat downward job revisions, the BLS said that both prior months were revised up, to wit: the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was revised up by 55,000, from +89,000 to +144,000, and the change for August was revised up by 17,000, from +142,000 to +159,000. With these revisions, employment in July and August combined is 72,000 higher than previously reported.

Some context: as UBS notes, the moving six-month average on nonfarm payrolls is 167k. The estimate is that 150k is about consistent with a return of the economy to trend growth. Which means that inflation is about to come back with a vengeance, just as the Fed launches its easing cycle.

Remarkably, while payrolls jumped by the most in half a year, the number of employed people also surged, rising by a whopping 430K, also the biggest one-month jump since March.

It wasn’t just the payrolls, however, which came in far stronger than estimates: the unemployment rate also came in stronger than expected, and thanks to the jump in employed workers coupled with the decline in unemployed workers (from 7.115MM to 6.834MM), it dropped from 4.2% to 4.1% (and down from 4.3% two months ago which spared the entire recession panic).

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (3.7 percent) decreased in September. The jobless rates for adult women (3.6 percent), teenagers (14.3 percent), Whites (3.6 percent), Blacks (5.7 percent), Asians (4.1 percent), and Hispanics (5.1 percent) showed little or no change over the month.

And here is the rub, because in a vacuum the super strong jobs numbers would have been fantastic, the only issue is that the September blowout comes as the Fed launches an easing cycle and as wages are once again rising as we have warned for the past 3 months. Indeed, in September, the average hourly earnings rose 0.4% sequentially, beating the estimate of 0.3%, while on an annual basis, wage growth was 4.0%, up from an upward revised 3.9% and beating the 3.8% estimate.

One note here: the average workweek for all employees edged down by 0.1 hour to 34.2 hours in September, which means the hourly earnings increase is not “pure” but rather a function of denominator adjustments. In manufacturing, the average workweek was unchanged at 40.0 hours, and overtime edged down by 0.1 hour to 2.9 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained at 33.7 hours.

What sector had the biggest growth? UNPRODUCTIVE government workers! A record 785,000 government workers were added in September, pushing total govt workers also to a new record high.

The Biden/Harris Administration has given away billions of dollars to foreign nations (like Ukraine) and illegal immigrants so far this year,

– $24,400,000,000 to Ukraine.

– $11,300,000,000 to Israel.

– $1,950,000,000 to Ethiopia.

– $1,600,000,000 to Jordan.

– $1,400,000,000 to Egypt.

– $1,100,000,000 to Afghanistan.

– $1,100,000,000 to Somalia.

– $1,000,000,000 to Yemen.

– $987,000,000 to Congo.

– $896,000,000 to Syria.

– $9,000 per illegal immigrant that has entered the U.S.

And claim that FEMA has no money left for Hurricane Helene victims who have received only $750 per person. So I have plenty of reasons to have no trust or confidence in the Biden/Harris Mal-administration.

US PMI Disappoints: PMI Drops To 47.0, Lowest Since June ’23 As Prices RISE (Gold Soars!)

Washington DC Saturday Night! Or at least Monday night. 13 will get you 20, unless you are in Washington DC.

S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI 47.0 (48.6 exp, 47.9 prior) – lowest since June 2023.

Gold continues to soar!

No, not cold sores, GOLD SOARS!

Hard Landing! 10Y-2Y Yield Curve Suggests Coming Recession

Whenever the 10Y-2Y Treasury yield curve slope goes negative, it is following by positive slope … then recession. Like clockwork.

Following every recession since the 1970s, the 10Y-2Y Treasury yield curve slope has risen, then declined. This time around, the 10Y-2Y Treasury curve has remained negatively-slope long than usual suggesting a larger than normal snapback. Into a hard landing.

Democrats in particular love hard landings because that green lights them for massive wasteful spending.

Election Interference? Fed Slashes Interest Rates By Biggest Amount In 16 YEARS (50bps) Two Months Prior To Presidential Election (Dots Plot Suggests More Rates To Come)

If this isn’t election interference, I don’t know what is.

The Fed today slashed interest rates by the biggest amount in 16 YEARS, a whopping 50 basis points from 5.50% to 5.00%. With the economy roaring along (thanks to Covid-related massive Federal spending), there was no good reason to slash rates. Other than to get Kamala (Hyena) Harris across the finish line.

The Fed’s bloated balance sheet remains bloast at 7.115 TRILLION.

The dots plot reveals more rate cuts to come. Or as the flea sang, Food Around The Corner.

Perhaps the voting members of FOMC realize how bad Harris/Walz’s economic policies are??

On The Harris/Walz Price Control Scam: PPI (Prices Producers Paid) Soared MORE Than CPI (Prices Consumers Paid)

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have produced a destructive proposal to solve the inflation problem: price controls. Her biggest supporters like Elizabeth Warren and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown love the idea of meddling in the private sector,

But I would be symapatheic to their arguement if consumer prices soared more than producer prices. However, the truth is that prices paid by producers (PPI) SOARED far more than prices paid by consumers (CPI).

The cause? Federal goverment spending (green line) exploded with Covid. Harris/Walz are proposing massive spending under her administration hence there will be MORE inflation under Harris/Walz. So, the have to rely on flawed gimmics like price controls. Which will lead to shortage, food lines, rastioning, etc.

Market participants are expecting a 50 BPS cut tomorrow. From 5.50% to 4.913%.

This painting represents Washington DC where the deep state lingers in darkness.