The Daily Shot Brief – August 10th, 2017

Greetings,

 

The United States: Unit labor costs in the US came in below consensus, suggesting that inflation should remain benign. The chart below shows the quarterly changes in labor costs (4-quarter moving average) trending lower.

 

While slower growing unit labor costs should make the US workforce more competitive internationally, it’s hard to compete with some major manufacturing hubs.

Source: Moody’s Investors Service

 

Credit: The number of distressed retail firms is at the levels last seen during the Great Recession.

Source: Moody’s Investors Service

 

Equity Markets: The situation with the retail sector is now far worse than the table below shows.

Source: @carlquintanilla, @tveskov, @dgelles

 

Emerging Markets: Iraq’s debt-to-GDP ratio has been rising quickly but is expected to peak in the next couple of years as growth picks up. Perhaps.

Source: BMI Research

 

The Eurozone:  European shares have underperformed recently because of the strengthening euro.

Source: Dankske Bank, @joshdigga

 

The United Kingdom: Here is the breakdown of all the leverage in China’s financial system.

Source: @BBGVisualData; Read full article

 


Food for Thought: How much confidence do Americans have in …

Source: @bruceestokes; Read full article

Edited by Joseph N Cohen


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Thanks to Josh Marte (@joshdigga), Matt Garrett (@MattGarrett3), Joseph Cohen (@josephncohen), Ycharts.com, S&P Global, and Moody’s Investors Service for helping with the research for the Daily Shot.

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