Public Small Business Owners Have Some Bad News Nov 8, 2022 1 min read The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released its October survey of small business owners today. They remain pessimistic about the general business outlook. They are still struggling to find workers and to keep them. In any event, their labor costs are rising rapidly and forcing them to raise their prices. They've been sucked into the economy's wage-price spiral. During October, 32% of small business owners Ed Yardeni
Paid Third Year of Presidential Cycle Is Bullish Nov 8, 2022 1 min read paid Featured We previously observed that the stock market has a strong tendency to perform well following midterm elections irrespective of the actual election outcome. Since 1942, during each of the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month periods following each of the 20 midterm elections, the S&P 500 was up on average by 7.6%, 14.1%, and 14.9%. Of the 60 observations, only three of them were negative. But none Ed Yardeni
Public Is Gridlock In Washington Bullish for Stocks? Nov 7, 2022 2 min read It is widely believed that political gridlock is bullish for stocks in the US. The market is happiest when our constitutional system of checks and balances is working. Therefore, a divided government is preferable to a unified government when one party controls the White House and both houses of Congress. So a widely expected "red wave" tomorrow should be bullish for stocks. We have previously observed that the Ed Yardeni
Public Dr Ed's Video Webcast 11/7/22 Nov 7, 2022 1 min read For a variety of reasons, there’s a severe mismatch between the demand for and supply of labor in the US. That’s created a maelstrom in the market, with extraordinary levels of turnover: One third of payroll employees have quit their jobs over the past 12 months, most for higher-paying ones. That’s driving up wage inflation and driving down productivity. Below is exclusive early access to Dr Ed& Ed Yardeni
Paid Economic Week Ahead, November 7-11 Nov 5, 2022 1 min read paid You can access a “live” version of the calendar below--with links to our automatically updated charts for most of the indicators shown--at this link on our website; bookmark it for easy access. Financial market participants have freaked out about the CPI during most of the previous months this year. Will they do so again over October's CPI (released on Thu.)? Maybe not this time. We expect further signs Ed Yardeni
Public PMI Prices-Paid Indexes Predicting Falling Inflation Nov 5, 2022 1 min read Rapidly rising inflation since early last year has forced the Fed to raise interest rates significantly this year. That's been bad news for stock and bond investors, particularly this year. From the end of the Great Financial Crisis through the end of the Great Virus Crisis (i.e., 2009-2021), the winning investment strategy was to own both assets. Investors' mantra was: "Don't fight the Ed Yardeni
Public S&P 500 Earnings Estimates Are Falling Nov 4, 2022 1 min read Industry analysts who cover the S&P 500 companies are responding to the current earnings reporting season for Q3-2022 by continuing to cut their earnings estimates for Q4-2022 and all four quarters of next year (charts below). They've been doing so through the last week of October when several of the MegaCap-8 reported disappointing earnings. The 344 of the S&P 500 companies that have reported Ed Yardeni
Paid DEEP DIVE: Has the S&P 500 Discounted a Hard Landing? Nov 4, 2022 4 min read paid Featured One of our accounts recently asked us to assess the extent to which the stock market has discounted a garden-variety recession. That’s an interesting question. We have been thinking and writing about this question all year. This is an excerpt from our Oct 31 Morning Briefing. Our current assessment is that the market has discounted a rolling recession, a.k.a. a “soft landing,” “growth recession,” or “mid-cycle slowdown. Ed Yardeni
Paid Powell's Hawkishness Boosts Bearishness Nov 3, 2022 1 min read paid Featured Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press conference might have signaled his latest pivot, but this time it might be to his peak hawkishness. He said that the Fed will raise interest rates until there is convincing signs that inflation is abating, which hasn't happened so far. There will be no pause along the way and certainly no easing. The terminal federal funds rate in December's Ed Yardeni
Public Powell Turns Even More Hawkish Nov 2, 2022 2 min read Featured During his press conference today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell continued to read from the Volcker 2.0 script. His punchline appeared in his prepared remarks: “[W]e still have some ways to go, and incoming data since our last meeting suggest that the ultimate level of interest rates will be higher than previously expected.” During the Q&A portion of his presser, Powell repeated “some ways to go” several Ed Yardeni
Paid What Will Powell Say? Nov 1, 2022 2 min read paid Tomorrow afternoon, the FOMC is widely expected to increase the federal funds rate by 75bps to a range of 3.75%-4.00%. There is much less certainty about what Fed Chair Jerome Powell will say at his press conference at 2:30 p.m. after the meeting. The bulls, including yours truly, are hoping to hear that after another rate hike of 75bps next month to 4.50%-4. Ed Yardeni
Public Regional Surveys Suggest Weak M-PMI Oct 31, 2022 1 min read Bonds and stocks might rally tomorrow if the M-PMI is as weak as suggested by the regional business surveys conducted by five of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. The average of the five composite indexes dropped deeper into negative territory during October (chart). The average of the new orders indexes remained near recent negative readings, while the average for the employment indexes remained solidly positive. All three are highly Ed Yardeni