Even though Home Depot reported second-quarter earnings and sales expectations, things are not as rosy for the coming quarters. The company expects a coming consumer slowdown that will coincide with the upcoming holiday season when retailers usually expect increased sales.
In the coming months, Home Depot expects to see sales decreases of up to four percent. This is far worse than the 1.65 percent decline estimated by Wall Street. Earnings per share decreased for the year from -2 percent to -4 percent, down from +1 percent.
"During the quarter, higher interest rates and greater macro-economic uncertainty pressured consumer demand more broadly, resulting in weaker spend across home improvement projects," said CEO Ted Decker in a statement.
(Related: Paul Craig Roberts believes that a massive financial collapse is on the way that will destroy everyone's assets.)
Economy isn't collapsing, says CFO: consumers are just in a "deferral mindset"
Home Depot CFO Richard McPhail told CNBC in an interview that consumers are undergoing a "deferral mindset," which he says has been the case since mid-2023.
In short, increasingly high mortgage rates have put a halt to the overinflated housing market. Coupled with elevated inflation and high interest rates in general, American households are simply not spending like they used to.
"Pros tell us that for the first time, their customers aren't just deferring because of higher financing costs," McPhail said. "They're deferring because of a sense of greater uncertainty in the economy."
"What our customers tell their pros is, 'Everything I read tells me interest rates will be lower in three to six months. Why would I borrow to finance the project now rather than just wait a few months?'"
McPhail's statements would seem to suggest that things will probably pick right back up once the private Federal Reserve banking cartel decides to trim interest rates by as many as four 25bps by the end of the year. This will lead to even more inflation, though, which will further send consumers into a deferral mindset.
Consumer weakness, as they call it, continues to be a trend throughout the corporate world with heavy exposure to consumers. Companies that rely on retail sales have almost systematically reported weak earnings.
The labor market is reportedly cooling while the overall economy "is trending in the wrong direction," reports state. The lower and middle classes are no longer able to afford basic necessities with many maxing out their savings accounts and credit cards just to make ends meet.
"These sales numbers are REALLY BAD when you consider the fact that they aren't adjusted for inflation," one commenter noted about how things are much worse than Home Depot executives are admitting.
"Exactly, and this is by design," responded another. "I want to see UNIT SALES VOLUMES contrasted YoY (year over year). They'll never produce such data."
Another wrote that "during a controlled demolition of an obsolete resource, in this case narcissists parading around in expensive clothes, cars, and dental implants ... the cullers must surreptitiously conceal the real intent."
"One of the ways they are doing this is by artificially inflating prices. The consumers that can afford to take on more debt pay the inflated prices. The same thing is going on with every impulsive narcissistic lust under the Sun."
"Forbes claims 40.9% of ameriKans are living paycheck to paycheck. I would want that number to be closer to 72% before burning the life jackets and blowing a hole in the hull on the Ship of Fools."
The stock market is back in the green, but for how long? Find out more at Collapse.news.
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