At first blush, Friday's first read on GDP growth in the third quarter was pleasantly strong. Growth re-accelerated to 2% from 1.3% in Q2 and seemed to fit with recent signs of hope, including a drop in the unemployment rate, rising consumer confidence and a rebound in housing. Even the drop in business spending seems to have reversed, with a good headline number from Thursday's durable goods report.

But once again, the devil is in the details. Stripping away the statistical oddities (like the way a huge surge in part-time jobs dropped the unemployment rate to 7.8% last month) reveals an economy still vulnerable to the fiscal cliff and unresolved issues in Europe. It's an economy that has CEOs and small-business owners, who tend to have a better feel for what what's happening down in the trenches, much more worried than average consumers.

Take Thursday's durable goods report. The overall number was boosted by a big jump in airline and defense orders. But after digging in, the team at Capital Economics noted that capital goods shipments outside of defense and aircraft declined, maintaining a recent trend of weakness as businesses cut back on investment spending. The three-month-on-three​-month annualized growth rate in this core measure fell to minus 4.9% in September, as shown in the chart above.

Economists at JPMorgan are looking at the way durable goods orders have fallen below shipments in a big way for the first time since the early stages of the 2007-09 recession. Clearly not a good sign.

What about Friday's GDP numbers? Well, those were boosted by a huge jump in government spending, specifically on defense. With big cuts headed to the Pentagon as part of the fiscal cliff, such a spending rate isn't likely to continue.

Real, hard measures of the economy maintain their downward trend: real consumption, real business investment, real inventories, and personal income.

Until these measures reverse and move higher, I will remain skeptical.

For now, I continue to recommend that my clients focus on targeted short positions in energy and emerging markets as well as longs in haven assets. Holdings include a short in Hercules Offshore (HERO) and a long in the Direxion 3x Treasury Bull (TMF) and ProShares UltraShort Oil & Gas (DUG).

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