Remember how stock markets and banking stocks greeted 2012 with a euphoric bang? The memory is somewhat tarnished now, and so is the US rebound.
Revised US GDP data showed 1.9% growth in the first quarter, down from the estimated 2.2%. The US jobs market recovery stalled in March, creating just 120,000 jobs, backfired in April (115,000 jobs) and ran out of road in May (69,000 jobs).
Consumer confidence has just hit its lowest level since January, despite falling gas prices.
The data no longer delights. What goes down can go up, and then down again.
Extreme investing
Worse lies ahead, in the shape of that looming fiscal cliff, a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts worth 4% of GDP that’s due to hit the US on 31 December. Some analysts claim it could do more damage to the global economy than the eurozone car crash, dragging the rest of us back into recession.
Source Article from http://money.aol.co.uk/2012/06/29/the-us-wanted-dead-or-alive/
