Economy

AI Driving Market Meltup

Jul 18, 2023 2 min read paid

Today's economic indicators were weak, but the stock market rose to yet another new bull market high boosted by better-than-expected earnings from some of the big banks. Also leading the market higher was Microsoft, which rose 4.4% to a new record high. The company introduced Copilot to its suite of Office software. The $30-per-month subscription service adds AI which can design presentations, offer writing prompts, summarize meetings,

Ed Yardeni

Rollercoaster Ride in the Bond Market

Apr 10, 2023 2 min read paid

At the start of this year, the widespread economic consensus was that a hard landing is coming. The consensus changed dramatically during February, when January’s stronger-than-expected economic indicators suggested that a no-landing scenario was more likely. Last week’s batch of economic indicators revived concerns about a hard landing. We watched this rollercoaster ride with our feet firmly planted on the ground. The outlook still looks like a soft

Ed Yardeni

Bond Yields Spiraling Downward

Apr 5, 2023 2 min read

What does the bond market know that the equity market doesn't? The yield on the 10-year Treasury is down from 4.25% on October 24, 2022 to 3.29% today. The S&P 500 is up 8.0% over the same period. Bond investors must believe that the banking crisis will soon morph into a credit crunch and a recession, so inflation will continue to fall perhaps

Ed Yardeni

Labor Market Tight. Goods Market Not So.

Feb 28, 2023 1 min read paid

The Fed would like to see fewer job openings to help moderate wage inflation. The time series is reported in the JOLTS report. January's update comes out March 8. It could jolt the Fed into remaining hawkish. That's because it is highly correlated with the The Conference Board's "jobs plentiful" series that came out today and that's been up two

Ed Yardeni

Loose Fed Lips Sink Stocks & Bonds

Feb 16, 2023 2 min read paid

Stock and bond prices fell today as two none-voting FOMC participants (Bullard & Mester) suggested that higher-for-longer interest rates will be necessary to bring down inflation. They were reacting to the latest batch of economic indicators confirming that the labor market is tight, consumers are still spending, and inflation may not be falling fast enough. January's PPI, released this morning, rose 0.7% m/m. That was above

Ed Yardeni

Is The Service-Providing Economy Cooling Off?

Jan 9, 2023 2 min read paid

Consumers have cut back on spending on goods because they went on a goods-buying binge on them during 2020 and 2021, when many services businesses were either closed or limited by social distancing restrictions. During 2022, they pivoted to spending less at retailers and more at services providers as they reopened (chart). Consumers tend to determine the pace of economic activity. In a soft-landing scenario, they should continue to spend

Ed Yardeni

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

The Economic Week Ahead: Sept. 19-23

Sep 18, 2022 1 min read

It's a light week for economic releases in the US. The focus will be on the Fed. Wednesday will be action packed with the FOMC's latest policy statement and Summary of Economic Projections both out at 2:00 pm and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's presser at 2:30 pm. Powell is likely to be as hawkish as he was during his August 26 speech

Ed Yardeni

Consumers Have Nothing To Fear But The Future

Jul 26, 2022 1 min read

Consumers are looking into their crystal balls and they don't like what they see. Even though the present still looks bright, the future is looking darker. July's Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) continued to decline in July as it has been since mid-2021 (down to 95.7), led by its falling expectations component (down to 65.3) (chart below). The current conditions component edged down in July,

Ed Yardeni

More Signs of A Mid-Cycle Slowdown

Jul 21, 2022 1 min read paid

The latest batch of economic indicators are in line with our mild recession outlook (a.k.a., a mid-cycle slowdown). We now have June's Leading and Coincident Economic Indexes (LEI & CEI) and July's NY and Philly regional business surveys, which are conducted by five of the 12 Federal Reserve district banks. The averages of the five tend to closely track the national manufacturing purchasing managers

Ed Yardeni

NY Fed Survey Shows Easing Pricing Pressures

Jul 19, 2022 1 min read

The NY Fed's July business survey showed significant declines in the prices-paid and prices-received diffusion indexes . Six-month-ahead expectations are down even more for both indexes (charts below). We will be closely examining the July business surveys conducted by four other Federal Reserve bank districts for confirmation that inflationary pressures are abating nationally. Philly will be released on Thursday. Dallas, Richmond, and KC will be out next week. We

Ed Yardeni

The Economic Week Ahead 7/18/22

Jul 17, 2022 1 min read

The week ahead is a light one for economic indicators. Monday starts out with May's Treasury International Capital System data on net capital inflows into the US. April's data showed a near-record $1.5 trillion in private net capital inflows, which certainly explains why the dollar has been so strong. This is consistent with our TINAC theme, that "there is no alternative country" to

Ed Yardeni

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