NT is giving you the straight shit.
Hedge funders (some) are allowed to short the market, and make money, also they play global (global sucks, markets are related)
It is not a stock market, but a market of stocks, most sectors and industries are underperforming even during this time, when some are supposed to be doing so-so, and it's May, so the liquidity in the market sucks.
The numbers are "cooked" since those numbers represent discounting, by contractors and homebuilders, who have MASSIVE inventory, and are wheeling and dealing with no down payments and slashing the prices in order to fill the homes that they have built, this looks good on the books, but bad in the pockets.
An "accurate" assessment of the economy comes at bottoms and at lows.
You know you have hit a good economy when public sentiment as well as business PR is high, you have hit or you begin to hit low when they diverge givt says good vs business and public saying bad.