Inflation

"UNCONDITONAL SURRENDER"

Jun 17, 2025 3 min read paid

The stock market held up remarkably well today considering that President Donald Trump abruptly left the Group of Seven meeting in the Canadian Rockies this morning. On his way home, he warned Tehran's residents to get out of town immediately. He also warned Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he is an "easy target" and "our patience is wearing thin." In a subsequent post,

Ed Yardeni
William Pesek

MARKET CALL: In The Middle Of The Middle East

Jun 15, 2025 3 min read paid

Israel is in the middle of the Middle East. Iran's Mullahs have been threatening Israel's existence since they overthrew the Shah of Iran in February 1979. There has been a covert war between the two since then. It turned more overt last year and escalated on Friday when Israel launched a preemptive strike targeting nuclear facilities (Natanz, Khondab, Fordow), military installations, and residences of senior officials

Ed Yardeni

Inflation Is Chilling Down While Middle East Is Heating Up

Jun 12, 2025 4 min read paid

May's PPI inflation report, released today, was lower than expected as was May's CPI inflation report yesterday. The PPI final demand for personal consumption edged down to 2.6% y/y in May, while the CPI rose only 2.4% during the month (chart). Both suggest that May's PCED inflation rate might have dropped to 2.0%, which would finally be down to the

Ed Yardeni

Stagflation’s Absence, Trump’s Deal-Making, Government’s Higher Debt

Jun 11, 2025 3 min read paid

The stock market didn't do much today. Neither did the bond market. But the price of a barrel of crude oil rose, and so did the price of an ounce of gold. President Donald Trump announced another deal with China. The US will allow Chinese students to continue attending American colleges, and China will continue to provide rare earth minerals to American manufacturers. Tariffs imposed on each country

Ed Yardeni

Betting On Bullish Hard Data, Not Bearish Soft Data

Jun 10, 2025 2 min read paid

The “soft” economic data releases have been weak, while the “hard” data have been strong in recent months. The former includes surveys of consumers, small business owners, and purchasing managers. We've been betting on the resilience of the economy, as confirmed by the hard data. Stock investors seem to agree with our view. The purchasing managers indexes for both manufacturing (M-PMI) and non-manufacturing (NM-PMI) remained weak through May.

Ed Yardeni

Inflationary Expectations Decline In US As China Deflates

Jun 9, 2025 3 min read paid

In the hilarious comedy movie "What About Bob," Bill Murray, who plays Bob, tells his shrink "that there are two types of people in this world. Those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't." There also seem to be two types of respondents to surveys of inflationary expectations: like those included in the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) survey and those included in the

Ed Yardeni

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: June 9 - 13

Jun 8, 2025 4 min read

Many of the questions the Fed has about how Trump's trade war is impacting the inflation outlook will get timely answers this week. Well, updates at least, since only President Donald Trump knows how long Trump's Tariff Turmoil (TTT) will continue disrupting the world's biggest economy. On Friday, we learned that half of Fed's dual mandate is doing just fine. The full-employment

Ed Yardeni
William Pesek

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: May 27 - 30

May 26, 2025 3 min read paid

The week ahead is starting with another tariff whiplash. On April 2, President Donald Trump imposed hefty reciprocal tariffs on America's trading partners but postponed them for 90 days on April 9. On Friday, he threatened new tariffs on the European Union, Apple Inc., and perhaps Samsung and other tech giants to be named later. But on Sunday, he postponed Friday's June 1 tariff of 50%

Ed Yardeni
William Pesek

Let Them Eat Tariffs!

May 19, 2025 3 min read paid

Walmart warned last week that it will have to raise prices because of President Donald Trump's tariffs. On Saturday, the President advised the country's largest retailer that it should "eat the tariffs." Retailers operate with very thin profit margins (chart). If they don't raise their prices, they stand to lose money on their sales. That's not a sustainable business model.

Ed Yardeni

Not Much Stagflation Today

May 15, 2025 4 min read

Earlier this year, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he and President Donald Trump were focusing on the 10-year Treasury bond yield as a key metric for economic health, rather than the Fed's short-term interest rate. He stated, "He and I are focused on the 10-year Treasury," indicating a strategy to manage borrowing costs through fiscal policy rather than pressuring the Fed to cut rates.

Ed Yardeni
William Pesek

A Quiet Day For A Change

May 13, 2025 3 min read members

The Dow Jones Industrial Average wasn't up or down by 1,000 points today. The S&P 500's VIX was back down below 20 on Monday and again today (chart). The yield spread between corporate junk bonds and the 10-year Treasury bond has narrowed recently. The latter seems to be settling down around 4.50%, in the middle of our 2025 range of 4.25%

Ed Yardeni

FOMC Day Minus One: Waiting For Nothing

May 6, 2025 3 min read paid

The federal funds rate (FFR) futures market has consistently been predicting several cuts in the FFR since March 2023 (chart). The Fed did deliver three rate cuts totaling 100bps from September 18 through December 18, 2024. Since then, Fed officials have said that they are in no hurry to lower the FFR again. Nevertheless, the FFR futures market is currently anticipating two rate cuts over the next six months and

Ed Yardeni

Page 1 of 23