 Welcome back to Trading 360. I'm Nicole Petolini. Live at the New York Stock Exchange. Time for the 360 round. We'll dive into today's consumer sentiment data, the numbers with our panel joining us right now. David Grasso, CEO of Bold TV. And Melissa Armo, founder and owner of the stock swoosh. Thank you both for being with us. David, I'll start with you. Your takeaways from what you saw, obviously the directional improvement has been some good news. What are your takeaways from the print? Well, this is the third highest jump on record, but still we're still way down from even March of 2021. If we really look at the patterns before the pandemic, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index was over 100, and it was even almost close to 90 in March of 2021. Now we're hanging around in the mid 50s, which is much better than expectations, but still a long way to go. I'd also like to add that there's a huge divergence between the way Republicans and Democrats perceive the way the economy is running. Some of the more positive things in the report, of course, are that low and middle income consumers are greatly benefiting from the hot labor market and really have a better sentiment and see their personal economic situation not only stable, but improving in the future. And then what did the Republicans say? And the Republicans say it's not good. We have a situation. If you look out there, if you Google this term, consumer sentiment, you're going to see that a lot of people blame election deniers, people from the far right, for artificially deflating consumer sentiment, which is, I think, very interesting and a very new phenomenon in America that partisanship is affecting the way we view the economy and bleeding into these official polls. The Michigan Consumer Index poll is the marquee way of figuring out what consumers think. So very fascinating times in America. Yeah, and did I want to make sure we cover both sides? And what are the Democrats saying? Just, I mean, I don't like to do politics, but since you brought it up, I just would like to clarify. Democrats think the economy is a lot better. I mean, honestly, I didn't plan on talking about politics on this segment either, but unfortunately, this is one of the things that... So let's leave it right there. Yeah. That's good. We have lots to discuss, David, and Melissa's in this conversation too. Melissa, your thoughts, because, you know, as we see what's going on, inflation has, you know, maybe peaked, but it's still four times above the central bank's goal of where they really would like it to be. So they can't necessarily be too dovish right now. What do you think about the sentiment print? I think that the Fed is going to continue to raise rates. I think that prices are still too high. And even though we saw some data out in the last week that showed that we were getting some kind of relief, it was really because gas prices went down, I think, about 67 cents. Food is still high. That is a staple. People can't live without eating food. Housing is still extremely high. Those two things are very important. So, yes, some things went down, but gas prices fluctuate, as you know. I mean, look at the oil stock. So do I think that we peaked? No. And as far as whether or not you're Republican or Democrat, I mean, all you have to do is go out and go to the grocery store and see what things cost right now. I don't know how anybody could say that things are getting better. It's just not there yet. I'm hopeful that things could get better, but it could be six or 12 months till that happens. Well, we have a lot of factors that have occurred over the last couple of years. And at this point now, you have inflation that is still very, very high. Melissa, I know you want to look ahead to some of the earnings, but David, as you take a look here at consumer spending habits, and they are digging into the savings because they have to pay for gasoline and food that are still very elevated, David. Let's walk through how to analyze a company's financials on Thinkorswim. To get started, go to the Analyze tab and select Fundamentals. Enter a symbol, then select Enter. To download detailed analyst reports, select Download. Buy the numbers, provides balance sheet information, and other fundamental data. Company details. Low and middle income consumers. I see a lot of challenges ahead. Right, and Melissa, I know you're also focused on, you know, when we look at what's going on in the market, a lot of folks have 401ks and IRAs. What are you thinking? You're looking ahead to some of the retailers. Well, next week, we're still in the middle of earnings season. We still have a lot of retailers out between now and Labor Day, and Walmart and Target are some big ones for next week. Tuesday and Wednesday, I will be watching those. What I've seen so far this earnings season, though, is that companies are coming out and kind of doing pre-earnings and saying things are going to be bad. And then the earnings come afterwards so it's like a softer landing. You saw that with Walmart and Target, so I don't know how they're going to react in earnings because a couple weeks ago, they already preempted sort of what they were going to say next week. So it'll be interesting to see how the stocks actually react. Overall, the market's still down from the air, and I still think the market is not going to make a new high before the end of the year. We've got less than six months left in the year. People bought that June dip down at the bottom. Yes, we've had a rally, but to me, we've just widened the range. So don't be surprised. If you get up one day and all of a sudden, we've gapped down and the market falls off a cliff because I'm telling you right now, a lot of people went long. Again, they're convinced in every dip that they're buying now that we're going to continue back up to the highs and I'm just not seeing it. I'm seeing the range having been widened. So it's a tough market to trade unless you're looking for specific stocks which I tend to focus on earnings. So right now it's earnings season, I'm focusing on specific things and that's what I'm going to continue to do. Right, understood. I know new highs this year. Quickly, David, as you look at what's going on, you said sentiment is lower now than it was in past recessions. So still not feeling particularly great when you look historically. Yeah, and I want to point something out, too. Remember, September 1st, student loans will be turned back on. People my age are walking around a lot of times with 50, 100 grand, $150,000 with the student loans. And remember, we have to start paying those back at the beginning of next month. So speaking of consumer sentiment, consumer spending and the general economy, that's going to be a big hit because a lot of us haven't grown accustomed to not paying student loans at all. Yeah, yeah. It's great to see you both. A great conversation. This is the SP right now. That 42, 45, a winning week, another winning week, four in a row, David Grasso, Bold TV, Melissa Armo, the stock spoof. Thank you both very much. And thank you, friends, for joining me. We'll put a leadies right here on Trading 360 every single weekday, 11...