Did The Fed Wait Too Long; The Widening Gaps Between Main Street And Wall Street; Between Main Street And Oak Street -- Part 1 -- February 15, 2024

Locator: 46826ECON. 

Personal investing: added to my AAPL position today.

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All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 

Again, all my posts are done quickly. There will be typographical and content errors in all my posts. If any of my posts are important to you, go to the source.

Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.

GDP Now: new estimate today. Huge drop after previous -- an anomaly or is the Fed holding back growth?

Down on the farm: most crop prices continue their downward trend. Shares of DE slump (pre-market). US farmers earning less than they did fourteen years ago? Needs to be fact-checked.

Economic data: lots of data released at 7:30 a.m. CT. Huge declines in retail sales. Tired consumer? Biggest decline in a year. My hunch: JPow looking at these numbers closely.  NY Empire State Fed MFG Survey surprisingly strong. Jobless claims 212K vs 220K estimated. Rick Santelli has it right. And speaks clearly. His analysis: too many cross-currents to make sense of what's going on. Housing sector very confusing.

Perplexed: if I had a nickel for every story I've read about high interest rates killing renewable energy, I would have enough money to buy a share of Nvidia. Like this article. But isn't that true for all businesses, the challenge of high interest rates? Why does wind seem to have so much more trouble? Or get so much more attention?

EV: one wonders how long Ford will break out EV sales / financials. There's a reason Apple doesn't break out some segments / products. Another advantage BRK has; hiding details of wholly-owned companies. Link here. This is information Phil LeBeau never covers / addresses with the CEO.

Vision Pro: reminds me of Steve Ballmer when asked about the iPhone.