Below is a selection of the US economic data points that have missed expectations in just the past month. MISSES
Personal Spending
Construction Spending
ISM New York
Factory Orders
Ward's Domestic Vehicle Sales
ADP Employment
Challenger Job Cuts
Initial Jobless Claims
Nonfarm Productivity
Trade Balance
Unemployment Rate
Labor Market Conditions Index
NFIB Small Business Optimism
Wholesale Inventories
Wholesale Sales
IBD Economic Optimism
Mortgage Apps
Retail Sales
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort
Business Inventories
UMich Consumer Sentiment
Empire Manufacturing
NAHB Homebuilder Confidence
Housing Starts
Building Permits
PPI
Industrial Production
Capacity Utilization
Manufacturing Production
Dallas Fed
Chicago Fed NAI
Existing Home Sales
Consumer Confidence
Richmond Fed
Personal Consumption
ISM Milwaukee
Chicago PMI
Pending Home Sales
Personal Income
Personal Spending
Construction Spending
ISM Manufacturing
Atlanta Fed GDPNow
So a pattern emerges: we have an economy in which jobs and only jobs are acting as if there is a strong recovery, while everything else is sliding, disappointing economists, and in fact hinting at another contraction (whatever you do, don't look at the Fed's internal model of Q1 GDP).