Public US Labor Market Is In Balance Sep 5, 2025 3 min read August's employment report was released this morning. It was weaker than expected. The month's payrolls rose by just 22,000. June's number was revised down by 27,000 to a decline of 13,000, while July's number was revised up by 6,000 to 79,000. August's big losers were goods producers (-25,000), professional & business services (-17,000, Ed Yardeni
Public Musical Chairs & Policies At The Fed Aug 7, 2025 3 min read President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran to serve out the remaining term of Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler. Trump said Miran will serve in the role until January 31, 2026, while he continues a search for a permanent replacement. The Senate will probably confirm his nomination quickly and before the September meeting of the FOMC. If so, then there could be at least Ed Yardeni
Paid Trump Dealing ... Consumers Consuming ... Employers Employing Jul 17, 2025 4 min read paid Liberation Day II is coming on August 1. President Donald Trump has stated that it won't be postponed, unlike Liberation Day I, which was initially scheduled for April 2 but was postponed to July 9 and then to August 1. According to a July 10 Reuters report, Trump is considering raising his 10% base tariff to 15% or 20% on most trading partners by that deadline. That would Ed Yardeni
Public ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: June 2 - 6 Jun 1, 2025 3 min read There's no question that President Donald Trump is stress testing the resilience of the economy with what we've been (objectively) calling Trump's Tariff Turmoil (TTT). The latest developments on Friday: Trump declared that China is violating terms agreed upon in its trade deal with the US, and he raised the tariff on aluminum and steel from 25% to 50%. Nevertheless, the resilience of the Ed Yardeni William Pesek
Paid 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
Public Is The Economy On The Edge? May 1, 2025 3 min read The good news is that the Magnificent-7 are still magnificent. Three of them (Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft) beat earnings expectations for Q1. We've been arguing that while AI may or may not make money for the providers of Large Language Models, the result will be more demand for cloud computing. That should be good news for at least four of the Mag-7. The bad news is that recent Ed Yardeni
Paid Strongest Buy Signal Ever? Apr 24, 2025 3 min read paid On Sunday (April 20), we observed that The Economist had just featured three consecutive very bearish cover stories suggesting that the dollar might be on the verge of collapse and that so might the US stock and bond markets along with the US economy. Make that four consecutive bearish cover stories, with this week's magazine showing an eagle battered by Trump's first 100 days (image). We Ed Yardeni
Public Bond Vigilantes Remain Unhappy Apr 10, 2025 3 min read It was not a happy day in the bond market. Neither was it a happy day in the stock market: Bond Market. The 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.45% this evening, up from a recent low of 4.01% on April 4, two days after Liberation Day. Yesterday, President Donald Trump partially postponed Liberation Day because the bond market was "tricky." It remained tricky today. Yields Ed Yardeni
Public US Economy Is Still Resilient, But Tariffs Pose Risks Mar 20, 2025 3 min read Today's batch of economic data releases was positive on balance but also suggests that Trump Tariff Turmoil 2.0 could dampen future growth. Stock prices seesawed between gains and losses, while Treasury yields slid a bit. Markets continue to suggest that economic growth outside of the US is increasingly likely to improve while downside risks to US growth are rising. As a result, US stock valuation multiples are Ed Yardeni Eric Wallerstein
Paid Layoffs Rising According To Challenger Report. Is That Alarming? Mar 6, 2025 2 min read paid We raised the odds of a recession on March 4 from 20% to 35%. Today's Challenger Report showed an alarming jump in February's announced job layoffs to 172,017, the highest since July 2020 (chart). On the other hand, initial unemployment claims remained low through the February 28 week. So we aren't raising our odds of a recession again, for now. A third of Ed Yardeni Eric Wallerstein
Public Another Growth Scare Feb 27, 2025 3 min read The stock market is in the midst of another growth scare, in our opinion. The latest batch of economic indicators has been weak. The current growth scare is reminiscent of last summer's scare. It is just as likely to pass if the next batch of economic indicators improves, as we expect. That still leaves policy uncertainty under Trump 2.0 to spook stock investors. We still expect that Ed Yardeni Eric Wallerstein
Paid Hitting a Wal(mart) Feb 20, 2025 3 min read paid Disappointing forward guidance from Walmart weighed on the stock market today. The company's shares fell 6.5% today despite a very strong Q4, mostly because the company's 2025 earnings expectations fell short of analysts' estimates. Part of the worry came from comments on the possible negative impact of tariffs. Management’s guidance also reflected negative currency impacts and a hit from acquisitions. On balance, the Ed Yardeni Eric Wallerstein