US OFFICIAL ECONOMIC DATA BECOMES MORE REALISTIC ROCKING THE MARKETS.

Over the last two months the markets have rallied with relief over prices stabilizing. They have not bothered to look past the reasons why prices have stabilized and even if they had done so, they would have been mollified by inflated official data. This week it changed. The disparity between official data and surveys had become too glaring. The negative economic releases this week were a reality check for the markets. From now on the markets will be driven by data and by earnings and little else. In this sense we have entered the ultimate phase of the collapse of the markets, the phase where the outlook for the economy and earnings dominates the markets.