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CEO Confidence Tumbles To 2014 Lows

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Q1 GDP growth in the US was simply abysmal - its worst in 3 years - but that does not matter as hope springs eternal that Spring is sprung and it's all green shoots from here. However... that's not what we are seeing in personal spending data (biggest miss in over 4 years in April) and now Bloomberg's Orange Book which implicitly tracks CEO Confidence via their comments has dropped back to the year's lows - not what we are being told by the talking-heads who promulgate the hockey-stick faith in our central planners.

 

 

Perhaps Campbell's Soup CEO summed it up best:

Campbell Soup [CPB] Earnings Call 5/19/14: “I’m disappointed that we failed to deliver the sales growth that we anticipated in the third quarter.

 

We believe this is in part a reflection of the persistence of an exceptionally challenging consumer environment.

 

As many others in the industry have noted, consumers are suffering from continuing underemployment, reductions in the SNAP program and rising home, fuel and healthcare costs. In combination, these factors are significantly affecting purchasing behavior, pressuring the performance of a number of our key customers and constraining growth across the industry, particularly in center store categories.”

 

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Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:39 | 4810102 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

bonus time again!

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:43 | 4810116 negative rates
negative rates's picture

Somebody had to tumble, might as well have thrown the Fed in the kettle too.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 15:32 | 4810570 Ignatius
Ignatius's picture

$10 million/yr average CEO pay and "no confidence".

O' boy... what year is this?

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:40 | 4810104 Grande Tetons
Grande Tetons's picture

How fucked up is the consumer when he can not scrap the spare change necessary to buy a fucking can of soup? 

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:51 | 4810148 AmericasCicero
AmericasCicero's picture

"Now introducing McSoup on the dollar menu!"

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:57 | 4810168 Rainman
Rainman's picture

can of no chicken noodle broth for 75 cent ? .... no way .

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:56 | 4810454 Vampyroteuthis ...
Vampyroteuthis infernalis's picture

"They have never been poor. They have never known the joys of a welfare Christmas."

-Everclear

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:04 | 4810207 Smegley Wanxalot
Smegley Wanxalot's picture

I bought a can of Campbells Chunky Chicken something-or-other this winter for a quick meal (normally make my own soup), opened it and poured it in the pot to heat.  While stirring it I was looking for the chicken amongst the noodles, some celery, carrots, and salt-water.  I finally found .... ONE CHUNK ... and that was it. 

$1.79 for one chunk of bird about 1/2" cubed, a few cents of noodles and veggies, and salt water.  You think I will ever buy that shit again?  Fuck Campbells and corporate amerika.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:05 | 4810223 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

But you're getting a hell of a deal on all of those high-tech additives!

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:41 | 4810111 pound the vix
pound the vix's picture

I don't think we have consumers anymore.  We have Survivors and they are scraping to just get by.  And then we have the Wall Street Hampton class who sees 4% economy for the rest of the year.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:43 | 4810117 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

Multinational corporations CEO's can go fuck themselves!  Scumbag rat bastards.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:45 | 4810125 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

Who gives a fuck about CEO confidence when we have Kevin Henry to move markets higher all the time? Who gives a fuck about reality when we have a pleasant virtuality (TM) that never ends?

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:47 | 4810138 Caveman93
Caveman93's picture

If these CEO's would just man up, cut costs by cutting their bloated payrolls and staffing they'd see a remarkable improvement in revenue from the recently unemployed consumers they helped create. Not that hard to fix this thing ya see?

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:49 | 4810144 ptoemmes
ptoemmes's picture

And to think Campbell Soup is supposed to be mmmm mmmm good...especially when its cold.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:01 | 4810203 negative rates
negative rates's picture

You can eat it hot in summer time for free in the right places.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:21 | 4810316 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Just remember to park the car facing south before you run out of fuel, and it's dashboard cookin' time!

All Campbell's needs to do is to sell their operation to Aldi's, as they seem to do a booming business these days. They've even got their own parking lots for discriminating chefs.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:55 | 4810154 Obama_4_Dictator
Obama_4_Dictator's picture

Boom... 2014 uncirculated eagles purchased for 21.67 out the door niggas.....

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:00 | 4810198 Obama_4_Dictator
Obama_4_Dictator's picture

How's that for confidence!

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:14 | 4810269 Obama_4_Dictator
Obama_4_Dictator's picture

Also, for the fuck of it...Ima pay off the last of my car note.....take another loan out of the fractional reserve banking system....and I won't be getting another one....debt free bitchez

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:52 | 4810155 Joe Tierney
Joe Tierney's picture

Sooooo, the CEOs (Cheap Expletive Orificers) running America's new brand of bend-over capitalism are losing confidence, eh? They're blaming their failure to meet forecasts on the consumer, eh? What's a CEO to do when rendering an acct to the greedy shareholders?

 

MOTS - More Of The Same - keep promising, keep lying and keep making ever deeper employee cuts, and keep making those employees remaining to bend over and take the rusty pipe up the bunghole. And don't forget outsourcing our jobs to Inja and Cheena. Such a performance will surely be worth an even bigger bonus than last year!

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:57 | 4810180 Ban KKiller
Ban KKiller's picture

Classic playbook.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:01 | 4810199 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

And it's always perpetual growth; there is no such thing as perpetual growth.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:03 | 4810213 negative rates
negative rates's picture

I feel your pain brother, i'm out of morphine temporarly, just hold on long enough and you'll be there.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:23 | 4810338 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Yea I didn't see the CEOs wringing their hands in worry when the Fed was bailing them all out....perhaps even that turnip has been wrung dry.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:54 | 4810165 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

CEOs should feel confident that tar and feathers are the next great bull market in the U.S.

 

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:54 | 4810166 Space Animatoltipap
Space Animatoltipap's picture

Stability is not really the mental position of these CEO's. 

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:57 | 4810176 SpanishInquisition
SpanishInquisition's picture

So we're in an 'exceptionally challenging consumer environment,' yet we have record high stocks. Makes perfect sense.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 13:59 | 4810187 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

At an average of $10 Million/year salary if these CEO's aren't confident they may be starting to smell the rot.

I don't buy Campbell's or name brands, the generics are just as good and 33% less.

The only thing I buy name brand is Hellman's mayonnaise (Best Foods West of the Rocky Mountains).

"...consumers are suffering from continuing underemployment, reductions in the SNAP program and rising home, fuel and healthcare costs."

No shit Sherlock; please forward to the FED and .gov.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:01 | 4810192 TalkToLind
TalkToLind's picture

Just in:  Jay Carney is out as Press Secretary in June.  

This news is obviously bearish on gold.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:02 | 4810205 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

His replacement will likely boost Russian stocks another 10%.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:05 | 4810219 negative rates
negative rates's picture

No it's all about saving health care, on the backs of the youth no less.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:00 | 4810195 Ban KKiller
Ban KKiller's picture

People are...gasp...cooking their own food. Found out soup is super, super cheap to make yourself. 

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:12 | 4810263 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

And it contains 100% more food.

We don't any processed "food" anymore. It's all soybean oil, HFCS, cottonseed oil, and whatever else that comes out of the lab.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:00 | 4810197 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

There are people that need hiring...and people that need firing.

Hope you all start choosing the right ones. "So far, so bad."

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:07 | 4810225 negative rates
negative rates's picture

Yeah, those targets float around like an amusement game on steroids.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:03 | 4810209 Spungo
Spungo's picture

I think it was Rickards who said the shit will really hit the fan when people lose faith in the central bank. Once people finally realize we're in a full blown recession, people will run for the door. Insiders have already left the burning building and are piling into bonds and gold. 

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:15 | 4810285 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Joe Sixpack has no awareness of central banking, let alone a reason to have faith in it.

Besides, if they start losing faith in the status quo, they'll lemming on down to the voting booth to "fix" it all.

You know, more of what got us here.

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:03 | 4810211 Agent P
Agent P's picture

It's only May 30th....I don't think the 2014 low has been defined just yet. 

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:05 | 4810222 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

CEO's with record profits can go fuck their worry!

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:08 | 4810239 oklaboy
oklaboy's picture

the CEO's on the consumer sectors see the same thing we do, and what can they do about it? THere is no "organic growth", ( I love that term). You can only cut so far, so many M&A's ( pinnacle, hillsboro, tyson merry-go-round).  Retail is dead for the forseeable future, auto's are stacking up or getting recalled, medical is skyrocketing ( I work in that sector, and you ain't see nuttin yet), taxes are now directly attributed to GDP  ( good deep penetration), and they are dumping kids on the border, like leaving them on a door step. ( no coincidence).

Time to start shooting, it is inevidable.

 

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:17 | 4810297 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Well, they just need to sell MOAR bonds to buyback their stocks.

Question is, when will that be considered CapEx?

Fri, 05/30/2014 - 14:35 | 4810391 Mi Naem
Mi Naem's picture

OT

Breaking news: "Los Angeles sues JPMorgan over mortgage lending practices"
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about: pit the thieves against each other.  TARP for lawyers. 

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