Monday, February 3, 2014

Worst February Start Since 1933

Got your attention?

From CNBC:

Since 1971, when January was negative, the S&P 500 extended its losses into February 72 percent of the time, falling on average 2.4 percent. That ratio stands at 65 percent for the Dow and 57 percent for the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 settled at 1,741 on Monday, its lowest close in more than three months. In fact, it was the worst start to February for the Nasdaq on record, and the worst for the S&P since 1933 and 1982 for the Dow.

Of course, those are just statistics from the past. The recent data is much more to be concerned with.

This got my attention too:

Does this make any sense?

Courtesy of Zerohedge:

And the Baltic Dry Index is crashing:

Which explains:

"Employment levels at Chinese manufacturers had quickest reduction of payroll numbers since March 2009"

"New export orders declined for the second month running in January, firms mentioned weaker demand in a number of key export markets."

Bad for Australia: "the rate of input price deflation was marked overall, amid reports of lower raw material costs."

"Reduced cost burdens were passed on to clients and marked the second consecutive month of discounting"

Why? Because price deflation and lower raw material costs are a product of reduced demand.

Closer to home (In the US):

GM's channel stuffing pipeline rose by another 42K cars (a quarter of total sales in January), increasing the stock of cars parked at dealer lots and collecting dust to 780K from 748K in December, the second highest ever!