News doesn’t get much bigger than it did earlier today when we had a gaggle of economic news.
GDP was released at -.3%. Its been a long time (about 3 years) since we have had to look at a negative number. Forecasts were modest at a +.4%, so the number wasn’t a total disaster, but it doesn’t bode well for the next few quarters as we look at potential for severe tariff disruptions.
ADP came in with a really soft employment number at 62,000 jobs added—about 1/2 of what the forecast was at 120,000. Of course we have the ‘official’ government employment report on Friday so we will see where that takes us.
Then we had the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) release which was more or less around forecast–although inflation was down a bit–prior to the effects of tariffs which we will see what happens there very shortly.
The 10 year treasury is barely moving and trading around 4.17%—preferreds and baby bonds are off a tiny bit as the soft equity markets get drug lower, although well off the bottom from an hour ago.
Yesterday I started a position in the Gabelli Global Utilities Puttable Preferred (GLU-B). This is a $50/share issue. I bought just 100 shares to start with and then added 25 shares at Fidelity–which at that moment was the maximum Fidelity was allowing (mother Fidelity-always watching out for us). When I get more cash I may add to this very conservative position.
