Three sets of data crossed my screen today that blew my mind.
Retail Sales are clearly in a secular long-term decline. Indeed, Macy?s (M) announced only a few months ago that it is closing 100 of its 769 stores, sending its stock soaring.
Restaurant revenues dropped 3.3% YOY.
However, Netflix (NFLX) earnings rocketed, sending the shares up a ballistic 15% in minutes.
Are these numbers revealing a major new trend in our society? Are we soon to have our every need catered to without lifting a finger?
Have We Become a Nation of Couch Potatoes?
After spending weeks preparing a major research piece for a private client on artificial intelligence, I would have to say that the answer is an overwhelming ?Yes!?
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is far more pervasive than you think. Half of all apps now rely on some form of AI, and within five years, all of them will.
Within a decade, AI will cure cancer and most other human maladies, drive our cars, decide our elections, and do our shopping.
As a result, the earnings and share prices of its most active practitioners are rocketing. Look no further than the dominant player, Amazon (AMZN), whose share are now up a staggering 193% since January.
AI has become the leading market theme for 2016.
People my age all remember George Jetson, the space age cartoon character, who only had to work an hour a day because machines did the rest for him.
The modern incarnation of his ultra light workweek will be far darker and more sinister.
Instead of a one-hour day, it is far more likely that one person will keep a full time eight hour a day job, while another seven unfortunates become full time unemployed.
By the way, I am determined to be that one guy with a job. So should you.
Indeed, I am increasingly coming across dire predictions that 30% of all jobs will disappear within ten years.
I?m sure that they will. The real question is whether that 30%, or more, will be replaced by jobs yet to be invented. I bet they will. Evolution and creative destruction are now happening on fast forward.
After all, some 25% of the professions listed on the Department of Labor website did not exist a decade ago.
SEO manager? Concert social media buzz creator? Online affiliate manager? Solar panel installer? Reputation defender?
What does the stock market do in this new dystopian society? It goes through the roof. After all far fewer workers creating a greater output generate much larger earnings that send share prices soaring.
It is all a crucial part of my ?Golden Age? scenario for the 2020s. For more on this, purchase my book by clicking Stocks to Buy for the Coming Roaring Twenties.
Having said all that, I think I?ll go binge watch Netflix?s tropical film noir Bloodline. I hear it?s hot.
Downton Abbey is over, and Game of Thrones and House of Cards don?t restart until next year.
