It's Tuesday, August 2nd, and this is Market Flory. I'm Matt Greer sitting in for Chris Hill this week, and joining me in studio today from Motley Full Global Gaines, Tim Hanson, and from Motley Full Asset Management, Bill Barker and Bill Mann.

Guys, welcome.

Thanks, Mack.

On today's show, we're going to talk deals, downgrades, and priceless cover-ups,

but we begin with Tuesday's news that consumer spending dropped in June for the first time in almost two years

incomes ticked up around 0.1% which was the smallest increase since November.

Tim Hanson what does it mean for investors?

Well, it's interesting.

I mean, finally, the numbers that we're seeing

being reported, I think, are starting to reflect

what people have been seeing in real life

for months now,

which is that the consumer is not doing well

and the reports that we were doing better

or emerging from sort of a consumer downturn,

particularly among middle class and lower consumers, you know, has

basically been a lot of bunk or has been more hope than reality. In terms of what

this means for investors, you know, obviously earnings have generally speaking been good, but investors need to remember

that there are a lot of components to earnings, some of which are not that sustainable.

And some of the reports that we've been seeing have actually, you know, companies are doing

things that are boosting their earnings but not

in a sustainable way such as lowering stock-based comp you know not collecting cash but

...