Public 'Knock On Wood' Apr 3, 2024 2 min read Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke at Stanford University today about the economy and monetary policy. He said, "I think we've gotten to what is, knock on wood, a pretty good place." He added, "We're using our tools to try to bring inflation down the rest of the way to 2%, while all the while keeping the economy strong as well." Today' Ed Yardeni
Paid The Economic Week Ahead: April 1 - 5 Mar 31, 2024 2 min read paid The first week of the month is always jampacked with economic indicators. In addition, at least one member of the Federal Open Mouth Committee will be speaking every day. The economic indicators should confirm that the economy remains resilient in the face of pockets of weakness (a.k.a., rolling recessions). For starters, we'll see if the ISM's March M-PMI (Mon) confirms the weakness in the Ed Yardeni
Public The Economic Week Ahead: March 18 - 22 Mar 17, 2024 2 min read Other than Nvidia's AI lovefest during the first three days of the week and the FOMC meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, it's a quiet week for economic indicators. It will be interesting to see if the Philly Fed's regional business survey (Thu) for March confirms the weakness in last week's similar survey released by the NY Fed (chart). Both of these regional Ed Yardeni
Paid Two of the Magnificent 7 Get Shanghaied Mar 5, 2024 2 min read paid Two of the Magnificent-7 are less magnificent. That's because China is in a recession and Chinese consumers are buying fewer of Apple's iPhones and Tesla's EVs. These two companies are also facing more competition from Chinese producers of similar consumer goods. So, they are down 11.6% and 27.3% ytd. Also down by 5.0% ytd is Alphabet, which is deemed to be Ed Yardeni
Public Goldilocks Without The Bears Feb 29, 2024 2 min read Every now and then, the economy is widely described as being a "Goldilocks" economy. Like Goldilocks' preferred porridge, it is not too hot and not too cold, but just right and bullish for stocks. We often agreed with that assessment, but we also noted that three bears did show up at the end of this cautionary tale. Once again, the economy is just right for Professor Goldilocks, Ed Yardeni
Paid The Economic Week Ahead: February 26 - March 1 Feb 25, 2024 2 min read paid The economic week ahead is jampacked with important economic indicators. The ones for January–New Home Sales (Mon), Durable Goods (Tue), and Personal Income (Thu)–were probably weakened by the month's bad weather. The February indicators should show some rebound in economic activity. February's Dallas, Richmond, and Kansas City Fed regional business surveys will be out this week. They should confirm the weather-related rebounds in economic Ed Yardeni
Paid The Economic Week Ahead: January 29 - February 2 Jan 28, 2024 2 min read paid The FOMC meets Tuesday and Wednesday with Fed Chair Jerome Powell conducting a press conference Wednesday afternoon. We expect no change in the federal funds rate. Powell is likely to push back against the market's expectations of sooner-rather-than-later rate cuts by observing that financial conditions have eased and the economy is stronger than expected, thanks in part to productivity. The first week of each month tends to be Ed Yardeni
Public Loose Houthis Can Sink Ships Jan 16, 2024 2 min read Chevron CEO Michael Wirth warned yesterday in a CNBC interview that the Red Sea crisis could disrupt oil supplies and quickly push oil prices higher: "So much of the world's oil flows through that region that were it to be cut off, I think you could see things change very rapidly," he said. So what did the price of oil do today? It edged down (chart) Ed Yardeni
Paid The Economic Week Ahead: January 2–5 Jan 1, 2024 2 min read paid We made it through another year of living dangerously: 2024 is here! The first week of the new year is unlikely to bring any surprises on the economic front. Most of the indicators will provide insights into the labor market and consumer spending on autos and houses: (1) November's JOLTS report (Tue) should confirm that there are still more job openings than unemployed workers. We know that from Ed Yardeni
Paid Bonds Yields Down On Weak Goods Economy Dec 27, 2023 1 min read paid Bond yields continued to fall today on December's weak manufacturing regional surveys conducted by five of the 12 Federal Reserve district banks. Furthermore, on Tuesday, Mastercard SpendingPulse reported that retail sales during the holiday shopping season (from November 1 through December 24) were up just over 3% y/y. The increase was weaker excluding the 7.8% increase in restaurant sales. We conclude that the rolling recession for Ed Yardeni