Are The Markets Complacent About North Korea?

Equities rebounded from early morning losses sparked by North Korea firing a missile over Japan. Treasuries retraced some of their gains. To write the obvious, North Korea’s potential outcomes are infinite.

Radically changing topics consumer confidence is at the second highest level since 2000. The labor differential, or the gauge measuring those saying jobs are plentiful minus share saying jobs are hard to get, widened to 18.1 points, the most since July 2001, up from 14.5 the prior month. Share of households who expect incomes to rise in the next month increased to 20.9% in August, up from 20% in July, also a multi-decade high.

Wow! This data is incredible given the incredible vitriol in today’s society.

Today is the first revision of second quarter GDP. Analysts are expecting a slight decline to a 2.6% rate versus the previously reported 2.7% pace, the result of inventory destocking. How will this data influence economic forecasts?

Last night the foreign markets were up. London was up 0.37%, Paris was up 0.49% and Frankfurt was up 0.46%. China was down 0.05%, Japan was up 0.74% and Hang Sang was up 1.19%.