Inflation

From Cuts to Hikes: The Fed's Shifting Calculus

May 13, 2026 5 min read paid

The April FOMC statement contained an easing bias, signaling that the Fed remained likely to cut the federal funds rate (FFR) over the rest of the year. That bias is becoming increasingly difficult to defend. Three voting members on the FOMC (Hammack, Kashkari, and Logan) already dissented against retaining it at the April meeting of the monetary policy committee. Boston Fed President Susan Collins has since added her voice to

Ed Yardeni
Elias Griepentrog

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: May 11-15

May 10, 2026 4 min read

The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,398.93, another record high. The index is 9.2% above its 200-day moving average. Earnings have done the heavy lifting so far this year. The Q1-2026 earnings reporting season is winding down, with companies representing 1% of the S&P 500’s market cap reporting this week and another 12% the following week. Industry analysts’ consensus Q1-2026 earnings forecasts

Ed Yardeni
Toby Hearst

Productivity Booms As Labor Market Shows Signs Of Revival

May 7, 2026 4 min read paid

When the labor market sneezes, ADP, Paychex, and ManpowerGroup catch colds. The stock prices of all three sold off sharply as hiring cooled starting early last year (chart). But on balance, the latest batch of labor market data suggests that employment conditions may be improving, and employment-related stocks may be bottoming (chart). We disagree with the widely-held notion that AI is a net job killer. In our opinion, AI will

Ed Yardeni
Elias Griepentrog

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: April 27-May 1

Apr 25, 2026 4 min read

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year on the economic calendar. Five major central banks meet: the Fed, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England. Five mega-cap tech names report earnings: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple. Wednesday brings the advance Q1-2025 GDP report, and Thursday the March PCED, which will show how much of the oil

Ed Yardeni
Toby Hearst

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: April 13-17

Apr 12, 2026 3 min read

The unresolved Middle East conflict will remain center stage this week. It is having an immediate impact on energy prices in the United States. The US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will push prices up again at the start of the week. The impact on the US inflation pipeline remains the dominant macroeconomic theme, ahead of Tuesday's March PPI release. A relatively quiet week on the economic

Ed Yardeni
Toby Hearst

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: February 23–27

Feb 22, 2026 3 min read

Now that the gavel has fallen on Donald Trump’s tariffs, the question is how the US president will try to save face. President Trump’s move on Saturday to slap 15% universal levies on the globe—up from an initial 10% on Friday—dispels the notion that Trump might’ve lost the taste for trade-warring. Where Trump takes tariffs now is anyone’s guess. On Friday, the Supreme Court

Ed Yardeni

Nirvana: Will Somebody Tell The Fed That We Have Arrived?

Feb 18, 2026 4 min read paid

The Fed achieved its congressional dual mandate in January. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, and the CPI inflation rate was down to 2.4% y/y. Those round down to what we call “Nirvana” readings, i.e., the low unemployment level of 4.0% and the Fed’s inflation target of 2.0% (chart). Fed officials should celebrate and go on a long vacation. They can leave the

Ed Yardeni
Toby Hearst

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: February 17–20

Feb 16, 2026 3 min read

This holiday-shortened week could be a pivotal one for investors trying to gauge the outlook for Fed policymaking. Highlights include a first estimate of Q4-2025 real GDP (Fri), December PCED inflation (Fri), February consumer sentiment (Fri), and the minutes from the January 27-28 Federal Open Market Committee meeting (Wed), when policymakers held rates steady. This fresh influx is especially welcome as the economy moves past the government-shutdown data distortions and

Ed Yardeni
William Pesek

Remind Us: Why Did The Fed Ease?

Dec 23, 2025 3 min read paid

Productivity must be booming. Real GDP jumped 4.3% (saar) in Q3, following a 3.8% increase in Q2. Over the same period, aggregate hours worked in private industry was flat (saar). Productivity must have increased by more than 3.5% over the previous two quarters. That's consistent with our productivity-led Roaring 2020s scenario. Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross

Ed Yardeni

DEEP DIVE: The Affordability Crisis

Dec 1, 2025 7 min read paid

This is an excerpt from the December 1, 2025 Yardeni Research Morning Briefing. Affordability I: A Depressed State of Mind. Why are consumers so depressed? The monthly Consumer Optimism Index (COI), which is the average of the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) and the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), fell to 69.5 in November (Fig. 1 below). That’s a level consistent with previous recession troughs in this average index. The

Ed Yardeni

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: December 1-5

Nov 30, 2025 3 min read

With the odds of a December Fed rate cut starting the week at 86% (according to CME FedWatch), the Fed and investors alike probably wish more hard economic data were hitting the tape. Ten days ahead of the most anticipated Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this year, the hawks and doves are doing a bang-up job making their cases for either waiting until late January to lower the federal

William Pesek
Ed Yardeni

DEEP DIVE: Slim Pickin's Among Economic Indicators

Oct 15, 2025 4 min read paid

The following is an excerpt from our October 14 Morning Briefing for institutional investors. We are sharing it with our QuickTakes members today. It isn’t easy being an economist when the government shutdown shuts off the flow of economic data. Nevertheless, the Fed is still open for business and issuing economic releases. So are several private-sector sources of economic indicators. On balance, the data we do have suggest that

Ed Yardeni

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