Defensives Dominate As Gold Pumps, Soft-Data Jumps, Inflation Slumps

The divergence between (weak) soft data and (strong) hard data is narrowing... and not the way the establishment elites (those darned PhD experts again) told you it would. Survey data is starting to accelerate back up as real economic data remains stable (today was a smorgasbord of macro data from claims (strong), PPI (soft), Factory Output (strong), Retail Sales (beat), Philly Fed (huge bounce back), but homebuilder confidence tumbled)...