The economy grew at 1.5% in Q2. Economists expected more. They always expect more. That's how they keep their jobs.
Turns out the government spent less money. Inventories dropped. Those two things tanked the headline number. Consumer spending held up fine. Business investment didn't collapse. But none of that matters because retail traders already panic-sold their positions at 9:31 AM based on a headline they didn't read past the comma.
Core inflation came in at 3.3% for June. Still above the Fed's target. Still not collapsing like the permabulls promised it would six months ago when they bought tech stocks at 47 times sales. The Fed will see this number and do absolutely nothing different than what they were already planning to do. Their models already priced in government spending fluctuations. Their models already knew about inventories. They have thirty economists whose entire job is tracking this sh*t.
But some guy named Derek who watches YouTube analysts just liquidated his entire Roth IRA because the GDP print had a one in front of it instead of a two. Derek doesn't know what inventories are. Derek thinks core inflation is when you work out your abs. Derek is currently refreshing his brokerage app wondering why the market isn't down 8%.
The specific components that missed were temporary and volatile. Everyone knows this. The bond market knew it before the print even came out. Rates barely moved. Equities shrugged. Gold did whatever the f*ck gold does when nobody's watching.
Meanwhile Derek just rage-posted on six different subreddits about how the recession is definitely here this time and anyone who disagrees is a Fed shill. He'll be buying back in at higher prices within three weeks while blaming Jerome Powell for his losses.
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