Economic data continues to be soft contradicting the Fed repetition economic growth is “solid”.
Retail Sales report was surprisingly weak as they fell to –0.3% vs 0.3% expected & prior 1.00%. Ex-Autos & Gas the reading was not much different at -0.2% vs 0.6% expected & prior 0.5%.
Import Prices were weak at –0.2% vs Export Prices at -0.1%.
Business to Inventories to Sales Ratio were weak as they expanded for the fourth month in a row at 0.3% which some suggest is in recession territory.
And, perhaps most surprising is Small Business Optimism (NFIB) dropped sharply to the lowest since March 2014