Paid The Economic Week Ahead: November 18-22 Nov 17, 2024 3 min read paid The week ahead will provide important updates of housing and manufacturing indicators. The latter should show that economic growth may be broadening to include the goods sector, which has been relatively flat since the Fed started raising interest rates. Since the start of the bull market, we've been recommending overweighting the following cyclical sectors S&P 500 Information Technology, Communication Services, Financials, Industrials, and Energy (chart). We Ed Yardeni
Public MARKET CALL: Powell's Latest Pirouette Nov 17, 2024 3 min read Fed Chair Jerome Powell is an accomplished danseur. His pirouette's are masterful. He did another such pivot on Friday in prepared remarks for a speech [starts at 19:00] to business leaders in Dallas. He said that, "the economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates." That's what we've been saying since Powell Ed Yardeni
Paid DEEP DIVE: S&P 500 Earnings In The Roaring 2020s Nov 15, 2024 5 min read paid Strategy I: Roaring Ahead In Sunday’s QuickTakes, Eric, Joe, and I raised our outlook for S&P 500 earnings as well as our price targets for the index. We did so because we believe that Trump 2.0 represents a major regime change from Biden 1.0 (or was that Obama 3.0?). The corporate tax rate will be lowered from 21% to 15%. Personal income from tips, Ed Yardeni
Paid Trump 2.0 Supercharges Our Stay Home Investment Strategy Nov 14, 2024 3 min read paid We've been bullish on the dollar for a while. Since, the Fed's September 18 meeting, the US Dollar Index (DXY) is up 5.8% (chart). Roughly half of that move has occurred since last Tuesday's US elections. The strong dollar confirms our view that the Fed has already cut the federal funds rate too much too soon, and now likely won’t be lowering Ed Yardeni
Paid Sticky Landing For Inflation? Nov 13, 2024 3 min read paid Today's CPI report suggests that inflation may be getting stuck north of the Fed's 2.0% target. The headline and core CPI inflation rates rose 2.6% and 3.3% y/y during October. Goods prices are still deflating. But supercore inflation, rent inflation, and wage growth all rose last month suggesting they are getting sticky at relatively high rates. This along with strong economic growth Ed Yardeni
Paid Dr Ed's Video Webcast 11/13/24 Nov 13, 2024 1 min read paid Something’s amiss with Fed Chair Powell’s explanation for lowering the federal fund rate a second time in two months despite an economy he admits is performing remarkably well. He tied the rationale for the move to the theoretical “neutral FFR,” implying that monetary policy needs to be less restrictive to reach that point, even though that point is intrinsically unknowable. Also implied was that the related risks are Ed Yardeni
Paid From Election Uncertainty To Policy Uncertainty Nov 12, 2024 3 min read paid The NFIB survey of small business owners was released today showing a record high in their uncertainty index during October (chart). That's not surprising since the polls showed that the presidential race was too close to call, raising the prospect of a contested election. The same happened prior to the previous two elections. The uncertainty index will undoubtedly fall when November's survey is released. However, it Ed Yardeni
Paid China: A Deflating Dragon Nov 11, 2024 3 min read paid Over the past three years, most American economists believed that a recession would be necessary to bring inflation down to 2.0% in the US. While the US economy managed to avoid a downturn, those predictions may have been right. The recession, however, was in China as the huge negative wealth effect of falling property and stock prices caused Chinese consumers to retrench. China's government encouraged manufacturers to Ed Yardeni
Paid Market Call: Animal Spirits Are Back & Boosting the Roaring 2020s! Fueling A Meltup Too? Nov 10, 2024 3 min read paid Just after Donald Trump won the presidential race on November 8, 2016, we observed that the economy and stock market were charged up with "animal spirits," a term coined by John Maynard Keynes meaning spontaneous optimism. Animal spirits are back now that Trump won a second term on November 5 and in a clean sweep if the Republicans win the House, which seems likely. The stock market jumped Ed Yardeni
Paid The Economic Week Ahead: November 11-15 Nov 10, 2024 3 min read paid The week ahead will provide updates on inflation, consumer spending, and manufacturing. We expect inflation might have stalled in October, interrupting its decline toward the Fed's 2.0% target. We still expect a solid increase in inflation-adjusted incomes last month, which should fuel strong consumer spending. The goods sector likely remained depressed last month, especially as hurricanes and worker strikes weighed on manufacturing hours worked. Here's Ed Yardeni
Public Powell's Mixed Message Remains Dovish Nov 7, 2024 3 min read The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut the federal funds rate (FFR) by 25bps today as widely expected. We expected it as well, though we still believe that the now 75bps cut in the FFR since September 18 is too much, too soon because both the economy and the labor market remain strong. In his press conference today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged several times that both remain solid. He Ed Yardeni
Paid Trump 2.0 and the Financial Markets Nov 6, 2024 4 min read paid Donald Trump's win and the Republican sweep of the House (probably) and the Senate (certainly) is consistent with our Roaring 2020s scenario. Indeed, it increases the odds that the good times will continue through the end of the decade and possibly into the 2030s. Stocks soared today on the widespread perception that Trump 2.0 will include a cut in the corporate tax rate and reductions in business Ed Yardeni