Suitably Flip

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Malaise

FedEx would like to cordially remind you that the economic recovery is more nebbish and sickly than we might've hoped.

FedEx expects its earnings per share to be anywhere from 85 cents to $1.05 per share. Analysts estimated that FedEx would bring in earnings of $1.05 per share.

FedEx also stated that it expects its revenue for 2011 to be between $4.40 and $5.00 a share. Following the trend, this estimate was below the consensus estimate of $5.06.

In pre-market trading, shares of FDX fell by 2.34%.

Also...

If FedEx provided the spark, the Commerce Department brought the gasoline. The department reported this morning that May housing starts fell 10% to their lowest level since December. What's more, starts of single-family homes plunged 17%, the largest percentage decline since 1991, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 468,000, the lowest in a year. The report was worse than the 7% decline that economists had expected. Adding insult to injury, April's starts were revised lower to a 659,000 rate from 672,000 previously estimated.

Yes, the housing fall-off followed the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit, but that expiration was fairly well-known among industry analysts.  The worse-than-expected decline may lead some cynics to question whether government intervention truly does spark sustainable economic activity, or whether the disruptive effect of artificially front-loading demand and allocating resources by government fiat might instead have a net negative impact on long-term growth...

One way to find out: let's chuck another $50 billion into the pit and see what happens.

Comments

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Malaise

FedEx would like to cordially remind you that the economic recovery is more nebbish and sickly than we might've hoped.

FedEx expects its earnings per share to be anywhere from 85 cents to $1.05 per share. Analysts estimated that FedEx would bring in earnings of $1.05 per share.

FedEx also stated that it expects its revenue for 2011 to be between $4.40 and $5.00 a share. Following the trend, this estimate was below the consensus estimate of $5.06.

In pre-market trading, shares of FDX fell by 2.34%.

Also...

If FedEx provided the spark, the Commerce Department brought the gasoline. The department reported this morning that May housing starts fell 10% to their lowest level since December. What's more, starts of single-family homes plunged 17%, the largest percentage decline since 1991, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 468,000, the lowest in a year. The report was worse than the 7% decline that economists had expected. Adding insult to injury, April's starts were revised lower to a 659,000 rate from 672,000 previously estimated.

Yes, the housing fall-off followed the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit, but that expiration was fairly well-known among industry analysts.  The worse-than-expected decline may lead some cynics to question whether government intervention truly does spark sustainable economic activity, or whether the disruptive effect of artificially front-loading demand and allocating resources by government fiat might instead have a net negative impact on long-term growth...

One way to find out: let's chuck another $50 billion into the pit and see what happens.