Percentage of disposable income spent on eating-out has plunged

We have discussed this somewhat obscure indicator of our obese nation's spending comfort-factor in the past, but just as divergences from economic and non-equity market realities seem de rigeur currently, we though we'd dust it off. The percentage of disposable income spent on eating-out has plunged dramatically in the last two months (the biggest drop since Lehman!) - after running up in a well-correlated manner with stocks - from the 2009 lows. It would seem that once again, equity hopefulness-divergence is writ large here and yet consumers are not buying the hype/hope.

The ratio of eating-out to disposable income has plunged by its most in 4 years over the last two months...

Read more >>