A sign inflation could start easing: Walmart is slashing prices on clothing and other products

Many shoppers have pulled back on buying clothing and other discretionary items as the highest inflation in four decades pinches their pocketbooks.

That’s left Walmart (WMT) and other retailers stuck with too much clothing and bigger-ticket stuff sitting on their shelves. To help clear out the backlog, Walmart (WMT) is cutting prices on some items and marking down products. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/25/business/walmart-inflation-prices/index.html
Lemme see if I understand... Walmart is going to cut prices on stuff nobody is buying. When they can cut the price of a TV down to about the cost of a can of beans... I might be tempted to skip a meal.

I have noticed many of those large shipping containers at the local Walmart. They weren't there until about a year ago and are still stacked high.
 

Gas prices are coming down, finally. Oil companies have been making record profits off of people's pain.

Oil companies reap unprecedented profits as Americans struggle to pay for food and gas
On Friday, Exxon Mobil booked an unprecedented $17.85 billion profit for the second quarter and Chevron made a record $11.62 billion. The sky-high profits come one day after the U.K.'s Shell shattered its own profit record.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oil-companies-record-profits-2022-exxon-chevron/
 

Isn't the "slashing prices" just a normal, seasonal thing, to make way for Fall inventory?
In normal times, this would be normal, but not sure we are back to normal times.

The theory being that companies experienced severe shortages of many items (yet higher profits by reduced inventory) and could only recoup normal inventories by over ordering. Then the spending patterns of the consumers changed, leaving the companies with way too much inventory for normal buying patterns (and decreased profits to inventory buildup). It's called the "bullwhip" effect and is being closely watched, regarding companies beyond Walmart and Target... and how that might impact labor markets.
 
I recall seeing tables full of the "must have" pandemic products(wipes, hand sanitizer etc) at the Home Depot post lockdown. Dirt cheap, couldn't give it away.
It may spread to many areas. A lot of the reports we hear are generally upbeat in stronger sales, etc. but are usually not adjusted for inflationary impact. The blue dots are heading upward, yet after adjustment, the amount of goods is decreasing. At some point the bullwhip may spread, in my opinion... and then we will have that recession, maybe.
Retail Trade June 2022.jpg
 
I don't buy the notion that this time it's different due to disruptions in the supply chain or that the economy is simply shifting gears to some sort of pre-pandemic normal.

I believe that we will experience some form of recession.

The question for me is when it will hit and how quickly we can expect to recover.

When the consumer loses their ability or willingness to continue spending and can no longer support their debt in the face of inflation the economy will cool and the stock market will drop.

Some pundits believe that the Dow will drop to around 27,000 points as the average investor reaches the point of capitulation and scrambles for the exits.
KlutzyBareBuffalo-max-1mb.gif

“The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.'” – Sir John Templeton
 
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Gas prices are coming down, finally. Oil companies have been making record profits off of people's pain.

Oil companies reap unprecedented profits as Americans struggle to pay for food and gas
On Friday, Exxon Mobil booked an unprecedented $17.85 billion profit for the second quarter and Chevron made a record $11.62 billion. The sky-high profits come one day after the U.K.'s Shell shattered its own profit record.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oil-companies-record-profits-2022-exxon-chevron/
Nope... no greed here.

little greed.jpg
 
I recall seeing tables full of the "must have" pandemic products(wipes, hand sanitizer etc) at the Home Depot post lockdown. Dirt cheap, couldn't give it away.
Here in Toronto on Face Book Marketplace, there are a number of ads running, offering FREE hand sanitizer by the case of 48 bottles, come and take as many as you can carry home. N95 masks are being offered 10 for $5. Disposable gowns and gloves are also being offered at bargain basement prices. On the other hand, the Bank of Canada has just raised the interest rate again, to 3.5 percent, which means that the mortgage rates here are at 5.5 percent. This rate increase has cooled the housing market by a considerable amount, with year over year sales numbers down by 24 percent across the country. The recession fears are looming. JimB.
 
I don't buy the notion that this time it's different due to disruptions in the supply chain or that the economy is simply shifting gears to some sort of pre-pandemic normal.

I believe that we will experience some form of recession.

The question for me is when it will hit and how quickly we can expect to recover.

When the consumer loses their ability or willingness to continue spending and can no longer support their debt in the face of inflation the economy will cool and the stock market will drop.

Some pundits believe that the Dow will drop to around 27,000 points as the average investor reaches the point of capitulation and scrambles for the exits.
KlutzyBareBuffalo-max-1mb.gif

“The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.'” – Sir John Templeton
It’s my belief that after looking at all the data and how recessions acted in the past, we “may” see the effects of a recession come the first quarter of 2023. I am not an economist or an analyst, but past recessions have been felt by the people in the second or third quarters after two consecutive quarters showed negative growth. This is just my view. I have nothing from the internet to show that I may be right.
 
It’s my belief that after looking at all the data and how recessions acted in the past, we “may” see the effects of a recession come the first quarter of 2023. I am not an economist or an analyst, but past recessions have been felt by the people in the second or third quarters after two consecutive quarters showed negative growth. This is just my view. I have nothing from the internet to show that I may be right.
Some folks say 2 quarters. The pundits say the great recession started in Dec. 2007 and ended in June 2009. It wasn't until 3rd and 4th quarter 2008, we had back to back negative GDP.

Some people say consumer spending, but as it is about 70% of GDP, it matched the GDP.

Some people say unemployment has a strong correlation. The unemployment numbers started edging up in July, 2007 and hit peak in October, 2009... at 10%.

Some folks claim business inventories have a strong correlation, yet it did not go negative until 2nd quarter 2008, and did not turn positive until 2nd quarter 2010.

The old adage comes to mind... "it is a recession when your neighbor is out of a job, and a depression, when you are out of a job."
 
Economists have called two consecutive quarters of contraction a technical recession. And with good reason: 10 out of the last 10 times the US economy shrank for two consecutive quarters, the US economy was declared to be in a recession.
Two consecutive quarters of negative growth is the standard definition of a recession, said Phillip Magness, the research and education director at the American Institute for Economic Research, who posted on Facebook a commentary about the country now being in a recession.(yeah, who'd want to listen to that under achiever)...(note, sarcasm)
The post - which is no longer visible - was marked by Facebook's fact checkers as being misleading. (again, I'll take facebook fact checkers for $100 Alex, over the director at the American Institute for Economic Research. cough, cough).

Govt. is using the U-3 unemployment number which doesn't include people whose unemployment benefits have run out but are still actively looking for work. The U-6 number DOES include those people and that number stands at 7%.
Let's not forget, that inflation is at a four-decade high.
 
Economists have called two consecutive quarters of contraction a technical recession. And with good reason: 10 out of the last 10 times the US economy shrank for two consecutive quarters, the US economy was declared to be in a recession.
Two consecutive quarters of negative growth is the standard definition of a recession, said Phillip Magness, the research and education director at the American Institute for Economic Research, who posted on Facebook a commentary about the country now being in a recession.(yeah, who'd want to listen to that under achiever)...(note, sarcasm)
The post - which is no longer visible - was marked by Facebook's fact checkers as being misleading. (again, I'll take facebook fact checkers for $100 Alex, over the director at the American Institute for Economic Research. cough, cough).

Govt. is using the U-3 unemployment number which doesn't include people whose unemployment benefits have run out but are still actively looking for work. The U-6 number DOES include those people and that number stands at 7%.
Let's not forget, that inflation is at a four-decade high.
This is not a good thing. The government blames a lot of it on the Russia-Ukraine war. Others blame it on our economic policies. Take your choice. Most economists that I have heard on CNBC and FOX Business say that with all the money handed out during the start and during Covid was also to blame. I think with all the money that we received and those with children did even better has to be included as a contributor.

Some people were receiving enormous amounts of money with the extra unemployment benefit money and if they had children, they received addition monies. A lot of shopping was going on. We really had the economy churning.
 
Hell Packerjohn, I doubt those 4 cyl gas savers could even pull my measly 150 gallon fuel trailer... which by the way cost $397.50 to fill in 2020 and last week cost $802.50. Guess you're one of those who thinks food comes from the store ehhh?


fuel.JPG
 
Lemme see if I understand... Walmart is going to cut prices on stuff nobody is buying. When they can cut the price of a TV down to about the cost of a can of beans... I might be tempted to skip a meal.

I have noticed many of those large shipping containers at the local Walmart. They weren't there until about a year ago and are still stacked high.
If we are using Walmart as an economic indicator, we are slipping back into the stone age. They just have to much inventory and need to move it. Now if they wanted to show us the economy is doing great, they could donate all that surplus and get a huge tax break.
 
Think we're already in a recession. Look at the rate of inflation and other markers. Start subtracting the wages or earnings from inflation rates and guess what - you've got 2 quarters of downturn plus big time personal negative cash flows.

The housing market needs to be seen to now so it doesn't help deepen it, and become the main marker in the future. Imagine the new "rental" upticks.
 
Think we're already in a recession. Look at the rate of inflation and other markers. Start subtracting the wages or earnings from inflation rates and guess what - you've got 2 quarters of downturn plus big time personal negative cash flows.

The housing market needs to be seen to now so it doesn't help deepen it, and become the main marker in the future. Imagine the new "rental" upticks.
Of course we are!
 
Allow me to be the contrarian. We are not in a recession... yet. Despite what Phillip Magness, of the Libertarian think tank, American Institute for Economic Research says, or how many nations definitions he tweets that have the phrase... 2 consecutive quarters, he omits the preceding word "generally". We have had recessions without 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP and we have had 2 consecutive quarters somewhere in many of the recession timelines.

A lot has changed since the 1990s and one of which is our excessive import/export balance. This deficit is listed as a negative on GDP and it jumped enough from 4th quarter 2021 to 1st quarter 2020, to change what would have been a 2.3% growth to a -1.6% and it did not retreat much in the 2nd quarter, making this last quarter -0.9%, instead of +1.6%.

Not to mention the GDI increased 1.8% in the first quarter. So there you have it. We may very well have an anomaly of a recession that does not include the past 2 quarters of Americans spending all their stimulus checks on foreign goods... in excess of what they normally spend. Once all that is gone and their credit becomes a big head ache... then the recession will start. We are getting much closer.
 


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