Paid Tanks A Lot Apr 17, 2024 2 min read paid The war premium in the crude oil market fell again today. Fears of a significant disruption to global oil production continued to dissipate this week. That's even though Israel has threatened to attack Iran in response to the aerial attack launched by Iran against Israel on Saturday. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil peaked recently at $91.17 0n April 5 (chart). It was down Ed Yardeni
Paid Dr Ed's Video Webcast 4/17/24 Apr 17, 2024 1 min read paid As the war in the Middle East escalates, it could send the oil price flying toward $100 per barrel and wipe out our expectations of continued moderation in US inflation (notwithstanding March’s anomalous CPI). … Barring that ugly scenario, our inflation outlook is good, with continued moderation to the Fed’s 2.0% target—which, notably, we wouldn’t view as justifying Fed easing this year. … But there are flies Ed Yardeni
Paid Hawks Fly Higher For Longer Than Doves Apr 16, 2024 2 min read paid It's official: Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed today that he and his colleagues aren't convinced that inflation is coming down fast enough to consider cutting the federal funds rate (FFR) any time soon: "The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it is likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence," Powell said at a moderated Ed Yardeni
Paid Market Call: The Winds Of War Apr 14, 2024 2 min read paid The S&P 500 is down 2.5% from its record high of 5254.35 on March 29 (chart). Its 1.5% drop on Friday was widely attributed to disappointing earnings reports from the big banks that day. Undoubtedly, the market also reacted to warnings from the White House that Iran would attack Israel within a couple of days, which happened Saturday afternoon EST. The S&P 500 Ed Yardeni
Paid The Economic Week Ahead: April 15 - 19 Apr 14, 2024 2 min read paid Following Iran's attack on Israel Saturday, geopolitics should dominate this week's market action. The Q1 earnings reporting season will also merit investors' attention. In addition, Fed officials are likely to chatter about whether any rate cuts are likely this year given last week's hotter-than-expected March CPI. And there are plenty of economic reports coming out this week. They are likely to show that Ed Yardeni
Public The Spreading War In The Middle East Apr 12, 2024 3 min read Ever since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, we've warned that the latest war in the Middle East between these arch enemies could be protracted and spread to the rest of the region. On October 10, we wrote: "This one isn’t likely to lead to a quick ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as occurred in the past, because it is in fact a war between Ed Yardeni
Paid PPI Not As Hot As CPI Apr 11, 2024 2 min read paid Today's PPI report threw some cold water on yesterday's hotter-than-expected CPI. Our opinion is that the Fed won't be lowering interest rates this year because the economy and labor market will remain strong. Yesterday's CPI confirmed our conclusion based on the wrong premise. We aren't expecting inflation to get stuck above the Fed's 2.0% target. We think Ed Yardeni
Paid The Last Mile Apr 10, 2024 3 min read paid Will the Fed start raising the federal funds rate again? We expect to be hearing this question more often following today's hotter-than-expected CPI inflation report. The previous two reports for January and February were also hotter-than-expected. We don't think that the Fed will raise rates again this year, but we've pushed back against the widely-held notion of several cuts this year and argued that Ed Yardeni
Paid Dr Ed's Video Webcast 4/11/24 Apr 10, 2024 1 min read paid There was no recession last year, but the widespread expectation of one depressed certain economic activities, like hiring. With that depressant now lifted, several labor market indicators shot to record highs in March. … Consumer spending has been strong, especially by Baby Boomers and especially on services, keeping demand for service workers robust. Strong employment and wage growth in turn have boosted consumer spending. … Real average hourly earnings has resumed its Ed Yardeni
Paid Will Depressed Small Business Owners Depress The Economy? Apr 9, 2024 2 min read paid Stocks marked time today, while bonds rallied after the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released its March survey of small business owners this morning. It was a pessimistic report overall. The small business optimism index fell to the lowest reading since December 2012 (chart). Yet, the solid performance of the economy has been at odds with the mounting pessimism of small business owners since early 2022. The employment-related series Ed Yardeni