Goldman Tells Top Clients To Start "Shorting The Middle-Income Consumer"

Two months ago, Goldman's Prime Brokerage desk observed that hedge funds were quietly liquidating their consumer exposure, prompting the bank to ask "did something change?" As it turns, following several notable blow-ups in the consumer discretionary space, the answer was a decisive yes, because one look at the XLY consumer discretionary ETF shows that it is flat on the year, dramatically underperforming the broader S&P which continues to plows higher, and is now up some 15% on the back of literally just five stocks.

Then, one month ago, Goldman's formerly euphorically bullish consumer specialist Scott Feiler wrote in a follow up note, "the title of my morning note yesterday was “Glass Half Empty?” The only thing we are doing this morning  after watching the price action in the group yesterday is removing the question mark from that title and going to “Glass Half Empty.”