<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Tuesday, May 26, 2020” data-reactid=”16″>Tuesday, May 26, 2020
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. ” data-reactid=”17″>Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET.
<h2 class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Corporate profits look better than expected, the economy looks worse than expected” data-reactid=”19″>Corporate profits look better than expected, the economy looks worse than expected
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, economic and market forecasters were flying blind.” data-reactid=”20″>During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, economic and market forecasters were flying blind.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Accelerating numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases along with sudden lockdowns around the globe made it impossible to estimate with any accuracy the kind of impact economies and businesses would see.” data-reactid=”21″>Accelerating numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases along with sudden lockdowns around the globe made it impossible to estimate with any accuracy the kind of impact economies and businesses would see.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="As preliminary March data — which captured the earliest impacts of these lockdowns — started to trickle in, forecasters were quick to slash their expectations. Economists predicted depression-like numbers and the financial market pros predicted earnings would crash.” data-reactid=”22″>As preliminary March data — which captured the earliest impacts of these lockdowns — started to trickle in, forecasters were quick to slash their expectations. Economists predicted depression-like numbers and the financial market pros predicted earnings would crash.
Now, after two months and many economic and earnings reports later, two narratives have emerged: the U.S. economy as a whole is in worse shape than expected, and the profits of America’s biggest corporations are doing better than expected.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Following the releases of April economic numbers, including dismal jobs numbers and disastrous retail numbers, economists revised their forecasts even lower.” data-reactid=”25″>Following the releases of April economic numbers, including dismal jobs numbers and disastrous retail numbers, economists revised their forecasts even lower.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="On May 12, Goldman Sachs cut its GDP forecasts and while warning the unemployment rate would spike to 25%. The same day Goldman cut its forecasts, Credit Suisse economists made similar cuts while warning “a longer growth slump will outlast fiscal relief.”” data-reactid=”26″>On May 12, Goldman Sachs cut its GDP forecasts and while warning the unemployment rate would spike to 25%. The same day Goldman cut its forecasts, Credit Suisse economists made similar cuts while warning “a longer growth slump will outlast fiscal relief.”
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="BofA economists lowered their GDP estimates last Wednesday, warning that GDP in Q2 would fall at a 40% rate while saying the recession will be “unlike anything we have seen in modern history.”” data-reactid=”27″>BofA economists lowered their GDP estimates last Wednesday, warning that GDP in Q2 would fall at a 40% rate while saying the recession will be “unlike anything we have seen in modern history.”
And just on Friday, JPMorgan economists cut their 2021 GDP forecasts while warning the unemployment rate would stay above 10% through at least the end of the year.
<h3 class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Big companies are doing better” data-reactid=”29″>Big companies are doing better
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Through Friday, 97% of S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies had announced their Q1 financial results, including many retailers whose quarters went through April.” data-reactid=”30″>Through Friday, 97% of S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies had announced their Q1 financial results, including many retailers whose quarters went through April.
And these numbers have mostly been better than expected.
“Although aggregate earnings are beating estimates by +2.6%, ex-Financials, earnings are surpassing expectations by +7.1%, with 65% of companies exceeding their lowered projections,” Credit Suisse’s Jonathan Golub wrote on Friday.
To be clear, it looks like earnings per share will have been down by around 14% in Q1. But the takeaway is that analysts were expecting worse.
“Expectations were -10.5% at the end of March, and -25.3% when 1Q reporting season began,” Golub added.
These better-than-expected earnings results help, in part, explain the rebound in the stock market.
The U.S. economy appears to be in worse shape than expected. (AP)
<h3 class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Bigger companies cash in as their smaller competitors struggle” data-reactid=”47″>Bigger companies cash in as their smaller competitors struggle
We’re aware that Corporate America is a part of the U.S. economy, and so these stories aren’t mutually exclusive. Still, these diverging narratives call attention to the fact that big companies have massive advantages in the current environment as everyone else struggles to keep up.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="With many small businesses shuttered and tens of millions of Americans workers headed to the unemployment office, government stimulus checks have made their way to big retailers like Amazon and Walmart, which both reported blowout quarterly numbers.” data-reactid=”49″>With many small businesses shuttered and tens of millions of Americans workers headed to the unemployment office, government stimulus checks have made their way to big retailers like Amazon and Walmart, which both reported blowout quarterly numbers.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="“The stimulus might as well be called the Amazon and Walmart shareholder act,” NYU professor Scott Galloway said to Yahoo Finance. “There are some unintended consequences here. The strong are getting stronger.”” data-reactid=”50″>“The stimulus might as well be called the Amazon and Walmart shareholder act,” NYU professor Scott Galloway said to Yahoo Finance. “There are some unintended consequences here. The strong are getting stronger.”
For Galloway, what’s happening in business now was inevitable. “The future doesn’t look any different. It’s just being accelerated faster… After 11 years of a bull economy, a lot of these small businesses quite frankly just shouldn’t be around. And they have to adapt and reshape.”
However, many would contend that it’s unreasonable for all businesses to have prepared a financial buffer for a pandemic that led to an unexpected, fragmented, government-mandated, months-long economic shutdown.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="“We let big box retailers stay open because they sell essential goods, but they also sell the same nonessential goods that small stores — who were forced to close — normally do,” Gary Cohn, former director of the National Economic Council recently tweeted. “We can’t let this run small stores out of business and need to make sure we level the playing field.“” data-reactid=”57″>“We let big box retailers stay open because they sell essential goods, but they also sell the same nonessential goods that small stores — who were forced to close — normally do,” Gary Cohn, former director of the National Economic Council recently tweeted. “We can’t let this run small stores out of business and need to make sure we level the playing field.“
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="By Sam Ro, managing editor. Follow him at @SamRo” data-reactid=”58″>By Sam Ro, managing editor. Follow him at @SamRo
8:30 a.m. ET: Chicago Fed National Activity Index, April (-4.19 in March)
9 a.m. ET: FHFA House Price Index month-on-month, March (+0.6% expected, +0.7% in February)
9 a.m. ET: S&P CoreLogic CS 20-City home price index MoM SA, March (0.3% estimated, 0.45% in February); S&P CoreLogic CS 20-City YoY NSA, March (3.4% estimated, 3.47% in February)
10 a.m. Conference Board Consumer Confidence, May (87.5 expected, 86.9 in April)
10 a.m. ET: New Home Sales, April (500,000 expected, 627,000 in March); New Home Sales month-on-month, April (-20.3% expected, -15.4% in March)
10:30 a.m. ET: Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index, May (-73.7 in April)
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Editor’s note: Morning Brief will be observing Memorial Day. We will return Tuesday, May 26.” data-reactid=”83″>Editor’s note: Morning Brief will be observing Memorial Day. We will return Tuesday, May 26.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in the base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 172.18 points at 23,383.35.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.99 points at 40,826.72. The S&P 500 index was up 10.56 points at 5,564.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 74.84 points at 17,470.37.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.59 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up $2.00 at US$69.31 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up five cents at US$2.32 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$40.00 at US$2,582.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up six cents at US$4.20 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
