Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Data? What Data?

Apparently, G7 finance ministers have had enough of tumbling stock markets. Despite continues abysmal data, they began aggressively intervening into the financial markets last night, determined to prop up the sagging stock markets.  After all, news is so, well, passe! We have printed prosperity now!

from Zero Hedge:

The only economic data point of the day is a disappointment as non-farm productivity drops 0.3% on consensus of -0.9%, although we once again get an unprecedented revision from the BLS whose data can no longer be trusted for anything, as Q1 productivity was cut by whopping 2.4% from 1.8% to -0.6%! This is the first consecutive quarterly drop since 3Q, 4Q 2008. Net, this is very disappointing data and means that the economic slow down is far more broad than previously expected. And, not at all surprisingly, we get the same thing with labor costs rising 2.2% on consensus of 2.4%. The kicker yet again is in the revision, which speaks for itself: from 4.8% to 0.7% in Q1. US economic reporting is rapidly becoming a bigger joke than the Chinese Department of Truth.