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Investopedia
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While the economy has remained strong, not everyone is feeling that strength.
Recent consumer sentiment surveys show there is a gap between the economy’s continued strength and how households feel about their personal financial situation. The latest data from the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index and the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index show people are still struggling with inflation and high interest rates, while also worrying more about their jobs.
The next release of the consumer sentiment index, which fell for the fourth consecutive month in July, is due on Friday. The next consumer confidence reading will be released on August 27.
Investopedia recently spoke with Oren Klachkin, a financial market economist at Nationwide, about what these measures tell him about the economy and where he’s focusing his attention. The interview below has been edited for brevity and clarity.
So the main difference is that consumer sentiment is a lot more sensitive to inflation, and consumer confidence is more sensitive to the labor market.
In the post-pandemic era, sentiment has been weighed down a lot by the high inflation environment that we've been in since the pandemic happened. And confidence has been more exposed to what's been happening on the labor market front.
It's becoming evident that the weight of high prices and high interest rates is increasingly weighing on consumers’ thoughts. That is becoming more visible as the labor market is starting to show more signs of being softer.
And so as that labor market softens, the income side of the equation won't be able to offer as much of an offset to high prices and high interest rates as it has been.
Consumers are now thinking that they're going to spend less on big-ticket expensive things. They're also going to go on fewer vacations and do less discretionary spending. And I think all that is tied to the fact that income growth is getting softer, but interest rates are still high. The cost of stuff is still very high.
The measures of the current situation have become more negative, for lack of a better word, and become more downbeat. Again, consumers think that things are getting worse, essentially, right now. But they still have, I would say, relatively encouraging expectations in terms of what lies in store for the economy in the second half of this year and into next year.
So I'm watching that gap between current conditions and expectations especially closely. There's some evidence that shows that basically, the gap between current conditions and expectations can provide somewhat of a leading indicator on the economy overall. I'm watching that pretty closely.
And then also, within the respective reports, there are underlying series that talk about consumers' plans on what they're going to spend on big-ticket things like cars, houses, and also if they're going to go on vacations, trips, and things like that. I will say that both the confidence and the sentiment data at the macro headline level has not really been a super good indicator on spending.
Essentially, they offer us an indication as to consumer spending intentions, a barometer on the consumer. But we also need to consider the real data, the hard data, that we have on the economy. The jobs report is one, inflation, obviously a super important one, interest rates. All these key real factors are very important.
And I say that because consumers' intentions, or consumers' thoughts on the economy, don't always translate into their spending choices. That was very apparent in the aftermath of that pandemic. Attitudes, in general, were pretty negative. Consumers continued to go out and shop, spend money, go on vacation, things like that. So we need to look at it in the aggregate.
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Instablog9ja
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Instablog9ja
2 hrs
9
A lady has written from experience that you can read the night before your exam and still pass the exams.
She said she has done this in all 8 semesters, secured first position from 1st semester to 8th semester enjoyed the university life and studied the last night.
Investopedia
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This week will bring fresh data on inflation, the housing market, and retail sales after a volatile week for markets amid worries about the health of the economy. A handful of Federal Reserve speakers will also give remarks during the week, potentially offering more insights.
Investors could get more updates on the health of consumer spending as well, when major retailers including Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) report earnings.
Tuesday's Producer Price Index (PPI) will offer an update on wholesale inflation, while Wednesday's release of the July Consumer Price Index (CPI) will show whether consumer inflation will continue its downward trend after dropping to an annual rate of 3% in the prior month.
The latest inflation data could influence the Federal Reserve's stance on interest rates. While easing price pressures could raise expectations of an interest rate cut, a higher reading would raise worries that rates will remain elevated.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker, and Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee are all scheduled to deliver remarks this week, potentially offering more insights.
Market watchers will also get sentiment surveys from home builders on Wednesday and consumers on Friday. Retail sales numbers on Thursday will follow a surprisingly strong July report that showed consumers still had an appetite for spending, and housing starts data on Friday will show whether builders are able to follow up on June’s increase in construction, potentially providing relief to a housing market struggling to build up inventory.
Investors will likely be watching to see if Thursday’s weekly initial jobless claims data will continue to show resilience in the labor market as well, after last week's report helped ease concerns about the economy.
Along with retail sales data, Thursday will bring a quarterly update from the nation’s largest retailer, Walmart. The big box chain surprised analysts with 6% year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter, and the company raised its full-year guidance.
Meanwhile, Home Depot is expected to post slight declines in sales and profits from the same time last year, as inflation-weary consumers have pulled back on big-ticket spending for home improvement projects.
Investors could also get a look at international retail trends this week with reports from Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com.
Cisco earnings on Tuesday could highlight tech infrastructure spending, while financial firms SunLife Financial and UBS are also scheduled to report.
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Healthwatch
3 hrs
32
All of us have an internal clock that regulates our circadian rhythms, including when we sleep and when we are awake. And light is the single most important factor that helps establish when we should feel wakeful (generally during the day) and when we should feel sleepy (typically at night).
So, let me ask you a personal question: just how dark is your bedroom? To find out why that matters — and whether sleeping in an eye mask is worthwhile — read on.
How is light related to sleep?
Our circadian system evolved well before the advent of artificial light. As anyone who has been to Times Square can confirm, just a few watts of power can trick the brain into believing that it is daytime at any time of night. So, what's keeping your bedroom alight?
Light exposure at night affects the natural processes that help prepare the body for sleep. Specifically, your pineal gland produces melatonin in response to darkness. This hormone is integral for the circadian regulation of sleep.
What happens when we are exposed to light at night?
Being exposed to light at night suppresses melatonin production, changing our sleep patterns. Compared to sleeping without a night light, adults who slept next to a night light had shallower sleep and more frequent arousals. Even outdoor artificial light at night, such as street lamps, has been linked with getting less sleep.
But the impact of light at night is not limited to just sleep. It's also associated with increased risk of developing depressive symptoms, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Light exposure misaligned with our circadian rhythms — that is, dark during the day and light at night — is one reason scientists believe that shift work puts people at higher risk for serious health problems.
Could sleeping with an eye mask help?
Researchers from Cardiff University in the United Kingdom conducted a series of experiments to see if wearing an eye mask while sleeping at night could improve certain measures of learning and alertness.
Roughly 90 healthy young adults, 18 to 35 years of age, alternated between sleeping while wearing an eye mask or being exposed to light at night. They recorded their sleep patterns in a sleep diary.
In the first part of the study, participants wore an intact eye mask for a week. Then during the next week, they wore an eye mask with a hole exposing each eye so that the mask didn't block the light.
After sleeping with no light exposure (wearing the intact eye mask) and with minimal light exposure (the eye mask with the holes), participants completed three cognitive tasks on days six and seven of each week:
What else did the researchers learn?
No research study is ever perfect, so it is important to take the conclusions above with a grain of salt.
According to sleep diary data, there was no difference in the amount of sleep, nor in their perceptions of sleep quality, regardless of whether people wore an eye mask or not.
Further, in a second experiment with about 30 participants, the researchers tracked sleep objectively using a monitoring device called the Dreem headband. They found no changes to the structure of sleep — for example, how much time participants spent in REM sleep — when wearing an eye mask.
Should I rush out to buy an eye mask before an important meeting or exam?
If you decide to try using an eye mask, you probably don't need to pay extra for overnight shipping. Instead, follow a chronobiologist's rule of thumb: "bright days, dark nights."
Of course, you might decide a well-fitted, comfortable eye mask is a useful addition to your light hygiene toolkit. Most cost $10 to $20, so you may find yourself snoozing better and improving cognitive performance for the price of a few cups of coffee.
Source: Harvard Health Publishing
ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) is a multinational company that engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas, electric power generation, and coal and minerals operations. It also manufactures fuels, lubricants, and chemicals. ExxonMobil operates three business units: Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical.
The top shareholders of ExxonMobil are Neil Chapman, Angela Braly, Steven Kandarian, Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock Inc. (BLK), and State Street Corp.
ExxonMobil has created a business division, ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions, to commercialize low-carbon technology solutions, including carbon capture and storage. The entity plans to invest $3 billion in lower-emission energy solutions through 2025.
ExxonMobil's trailing 12-month revenue (TTM) was $340.6 billion as of August 2024. Its 12-month trailing net income was $40.69 billion. The company's market cap was about $523 billion at that time.
This list reflects direct ownership. It doesn't include indirect ownership of shares or shares accessible through stock options.
The term "insider" refers to people in senior management positions and members of the board of directors, as well as people or entities that own more than 10% of the company's stock. It has nothing to do with insider trading in this context.
Neil Chapman held 856,908 shares of ExxonMobil as of May 24, 2024.
Chapman serves as senior vice president at ExxonMobil. He's held the position since 2018. Chapman previously served as vice president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company’s global polyethylene business before he took on the position of executive assistant to the chairman of ExxonMobil in 2006. He became president of ExxonMobil Global Services Company in 2007 before ultimately taking on the role of senior vice president at ExxonMobil.
Angela Braly owned 29,475 ExxonMobil shares as of Jan. 2, 2024.
Braly has served as an independent director at ExxonMobil since 2016. She's the chairperson of the compensation committee and a member of the environment, safety, and public policy committee. Braley also has experience in portfolio management.
Steven Kandarian held 23,000 shares of ExxonMobil as of Jan. 2, 2024.
Kandarian was elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors in 2018. He's also served as the chairman, president, and CEO of MetLife Inc. since 2011 and 2012. He was MetLife's chief investment officer before taking on these roles.
Institutional investors hold 57.82% of ExxonMobil's total shares outstanding as of August 2024.
Vanguard Group owned 383.94 million shares of ExxonMobil as of March 31, 2024, representing 9.74% of total shares outstanding.
Vanguard is known for its line of low-cost mutual funds and ETFs with over $8.6 trillion in global assets under management (AUM) as of Dec. 31, 2023. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is one of the company's largest ETFs with about $461 billion in AUM as of August 2024. ExxonMobil makes up 1.12% of VOO's holdings.
BlackRock owned 272.71 million shares of ExxonMobil, representing 6.92% of total shares outstanding as of March 31, 2024.
The company is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company with approximately $10.5 trillion in AUM in April 2024. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is among one of BlackRock's largest ETFs with approximately $478 billion in AUM. ExxonMobil makes up about 1.18% of IVV's holdings.
State Street owned 210.48 million shares of ExxonMobil as of March 31, 2024, representing 5.34% of total shares outstanding.
The company is primarily a manager of mutual funds, ETFs, and other assets with approximately $4.1 trillion in AUM as of Dec. 31, 2023. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is among one of State Street's largest ETFs with approximately $528 million in AUM. ExxonMobil made up 1.18% of SPY's total holdings as of Aug. 7, 2024.
ExxonMobil was selling at about $119 per share on Aug. 9, 2024. Its 52-week range was about $95 to $123 at that time.
ExxonMobil does pay quarterly dividends. The dividend yield was 3.21% as of early August 2024. The company boasts 41 years of dividend increases. Dividends are typically paid midway through the third month of each quarter.
A total of 4,560 institutions held ExxonMobil shares as of Aug. 9, 2024.
ExxonMobil Corporation produces oil, gas, lubricants, chemicals, and electric power worldwide. The company also maintains coal and minerals operations. It’s created a dedicated business division to commercialize low-carbon solutions. The company's market cap was about $523 billion midway through 2024.
The top shareholders of ExxonMobil are Neil Chapman, Angela Braly, Steven Kandarian, Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock Inc., and State Street Corp.
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