Health

Following the drastically revised-away surge in spending in January, and the savings rate surge to 2012 highs in Feb, March's income and spending data released today showed more problems for The Fed. While income grew 0.4% MoM (more than the 0.3% expectations), spending disappointed with a mere 0.1% rise (against +0.2% MoM expectations). Year-over-year spending growth slowed to 3.5% - the weakest since December and income growth slowed to 4.0% YoY leaving the savings rate at its highest since January 2013.

Income up, Spending down:

Aspartame is marketed as a diet product in many foods and beverages due to the fact that it allows food manufacturers to avoid using sugar, replacing it with an artificial substitute that they claim tastes like sugar.  However, the chemical sweetener consumed by millions worldwide is not an affective diet product at all. It can make you gain wait, and worst of all may be doing your health a lot of damage. Wakingscience.com reports: The woman in this story, who remains anonymous, is the sister of a writer who was featured on Rhonda Gessner’s blog.

As reported moments ago, Q1 GDP which came at just 0.5% growth, was a lousy number in which virtually every component besides personal spending (and government) subtracted from growth. In fact, in nominal terms, Q1 GDP grew only $22.2 billion annualized, of which personal consumption was more than double, or $52.5 billion.

But what did Americans spend money on in Q1? To our surprise, Healthcare, Obamacare was no longer what soaked up most Americans' cash in the first quarter (nonetheless, it was a runner up with $10.8 billion in spending).

The great megadeal M&A drought of 2016 just came to an end when moments ago Abbott announced it would acquire St. Jude Medical for $25 billion, roughly a 37% premium to St. Jude's Wednesday closing price. According to the press release, under the agreement, St. Jude Medical shareholders will receive $46.75 in cash and 0.8708 shares of Abbott common stock, representing total consideration of approximately $85 per share. At an Abbott stock price of $43.93(2), this represents a total transaction equity value of $25 billion.

Forget DOE data, it's time to buy ahead of The Fed!!

We suspect this won't last as the algos are struggling to catch the high stops.