Business

As we await all US carmakers to report May auto sales, we remind readers that when we discussed last month's disappointing monthly car sales report, which badly missing expectations showing the fourth consecutive month of declining auto sales - the first time this has happened since July 2009 -  we noted what may be the biggest concern for the auto industry: inventory days continued to trend higher as OEMs push product on to dealer lots even though sale-through to end customers has seemingly stalled.

If everything is so awesome (which the stock market alone is telling us it is), then why did US construction spending plunge 1.4% in April (worse than the weakest economists' expectations)?

So this is the 3rd worst drop in construction spending in 6 years...

The last time US construction spending plunged like this - global central banks unleashed a coordinated buyiung program to save the world.

This was lower than every one of the 41 estimates and missed expectations by 9 standard deviations...

During the past 6 years, Gold bugs have seen opportunities come and go in a struggle to recoup the gold bull market magic of a decade ago. Many investors are aware of the US Dollar’s impact on the price of gold. In particular, it has been the US Dollar’s strength that has kept the yellow metal at bay for the past several years.  Could this be changing?

The last two months have seen a major divergence between PMI and ISM Manufacturing reports (as the former confirmed today at its lowest final print since September). May's final print of 52.7 was slightly above expectations and the preliminary print.

This is the lowest 'final' print for US Manufacturing PMI since September (while ISM rebounds)...

This follows China's Manufacturing PMI 'contraction' overnight...

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

All the "fixes" have fatally weakened the real economy, and created a dangerous illusion of "wealth," "growth" and solvency.

The "fix" of the last eight years worked, right? This was the status quo's "fix":