Heres the rub. It may feel familiar in terms of the magnitude of the decline to mr. Lundgren, but it isnt familiar when it comes to the reasons for the dropoff. The last time we had such a sharp decline in sales as lundgren talks about later in his Conference Call was after the fall of lehman brothers. Sales just stopped back then. That was the recessisi and then morphed inin the greatest recession. Were not experiencing anything like that cataclysmic systemic event right now. In fact, this is whats so hard to understand. Its just the opposite. Last friday we had the best employment report in ages. Less than a week ago. Were seeing meaningful wage growth, again a first. Unemployment belowow . If you didnt know a a better youd think its time for the band to strike up happy days are here again. Things abe so strong on the job front we can fully expect Federal Reserve to raise rates when they meet in december. How can they not . A victory lap can be justified, even if i think its unnecess
Microphone and say these the against inflation. Im sorry. What inflation . I see deflation almost everywhere, except in wages. But clearly thatats all that matters to the fed, because by any other calculus, Everything Else is going down, except for make bonein chicken and allnatural beef. Two pretty niche commodities, unless you own a restaurant like i do. If you didnt know any better, you would think these fed policy makers will talk about the need its a recipe for declining stock prices, and thats what youre getting. No matter, like ive told you repeatedly, as soon as the fed got the ammunition to raise rates in the form of last fridays very strong employment number, this market would go from being intermittently bearish, with a somewhat popotive backdrop to oututght beararh. Some some pockets of strength hand some pockets of excessive negativity. Thats exactly where we are right now. Remember, the fed has no mandate to preserve your stock portfolio. I have they critics who sayivity
A cascade of sales but is producing the opposite this time around. And thats been the theme of this entire earnings season when it comes to o e industrials, the banks, and oil stocks, a huge part of the market. That explains a lot of the moves weve been seeing today. Where is this counterintuitive pattern most evident . The Big International companies. The ones that make the heavy equipment and catal goods. Lets talk abo a storied industrial, Emerson Electric. It reported one of the most sad sack numbers i can ever recall from what is a Great American powerhouse. Sales down 9 . Earnings share off 15 . Took my breath away. That wasnt enough. The ceo, a bankable fellow, took away any hope for the future of emerson stock when he saqd, we expect difficult markets to continue through at least the first half of fiscal 2015. I mean, are you kidding me . Thats awful. Devastating. But apparently not so awful to attract sellers or buyers either. Because Emerson Electric rallied a buck 29 today.
Al is on an amtrak train. Hes been doing the weather. Hes hitting every state. Hes with ryan eggold. Al, can you hear us . I can hear you. Ryan does not have an ip so he cant hear you. Hey, ryan, okay. He cant hear us. So where are you, al . Youre going from d. C. Up . Were right now, we just passed trenton, on our way to metro park. This is bob, the handsomest audio man in the world. Hi, bobby. Tell her i love her. Now he can hear you. Hello, ryan. So al, how many more states do you have left to go, honey . Well, weve got eight more states to go. Were going to were on the amtrak to boston. Were going to drive through then tomorrow, we leave stanford and come into grand central. Oh, my gosh. Wave to me, all righty . Out of stanford. I think youre tired. Thats right, thats right, on friday. No, im fine. Im doing they surprised me on the 9 00, ryan just kind of showed up. I just jumped in. I almost missed the train. Was running, jumped in, yeah. How far is ryan very james bond. It was, i
Nasdaq also dipped 3. 2 . First let me just say the single biggest buzz on wall street today, the most salient gut wrenching story is this shocking decline in the business in the stock of the iconic retailer that is macys. While few people actually expected macys to do well in an environment where the globe seems to be warming right in front of our very eyes, todays sharp selloff on some really bad earnings kind of took our breaths collectively away. As the chairman and ceo said at the very beginning of his really i think very disconcerting Conference Call, we had a very tough quarter. We are clearly disappointed with the 3. 6 decline in Comp Store Sales of owned andndicensed businesses. And the 8 drop in earnings per share. We believe thathe retail industrys going through a tough period that we seem to experience Something Like this every five to seven years or so. And this one feels familiar in that regard. Aha. Heres the rub. It may feel familiar in terms of the magnitude of the d d