Recession As Soon As Stimulus Ends

The inflation meme is going around, but it's not your father's inflation, at least not yet. For now, the economy is ready for deflationary depression the moment the stimulus ends. ZH: Walmart Gives Up All Gains After Company Warns Of Revenue Slowdown Amid Stimulus "Taper"

According to RBC analyst Scot Ciccarelli, WMT comments that sales begin to "normalize" in July "may suggest that the outsized gains experienced over the last few months may be starting to ebb" as government stimulus money “tapered off." He adds that while Wall Street should be expecting a slowdown from the quarter’s "nearly 10% run rate, the magnitude of change may give some investors pause as sales sustainability is one of today’s key topics in retail." His price target: $132, or just where the company closed on Monday. Separately, Bloomberg notes that while MKM’s Bill Kirk wrote that the retailer’s “strong” gross margin was a positive sign for peers, he too would be listening for comments on call regarding the "interruption of stimulus checks" impact on August and what Walmart intends to do with its ~$17bn cash balance.