Economy

Macro: PPI — PPI and Powell fuel rally

By |2023-12-13T17:21:01-05:00December 13th, 2023|Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Real Estate, Stocks|

PPI Goods = -1.5% PPI Services = 2.1% PPI FD = .9% PPI translation to the consumer: PPI FD Personal Consumption = 1.04% PPI FD Personal Consumption less Food and Energy = 2.2% PPI FD Personal Consumption less Food, Energy and Trade Services = 2.9% PPI FD Personal Consumption less Food, Energy and Distributive Services = 3.4% We continue to [...]

Macro: Treasury Statement

By |2023-12-12T17:46:23-05:00December 12th, 2023|Economy, Taxes/Fiscal Policy|

Last month the Federal Government spent $589B and ran a $314B deficit. To pay for the $314B they didn't have, they said they borrowed $261B from the public and drained their savings account by $73B. That doesn't quite add up but that doesn't surprise anyone. What's $34B between friends? When the Fed's savings account gets low, they have to come [...]

Macro: NFIB Small business trends — it’s all about expectations and outlooks

By |2023-12-12T15:21:51-05:00December 12th, 2023|Economy|

The headline index ticked down .1 to 90.6. This is the 23rd consecutive month of sentiment below the 50 year average of 98. The index surveys members of the National Federation of Independent Businesses and reports net number. When asked if the economy will improve, a net 42% of members surveyed said No. If no one answers "I don't know," [...]

Macro: CPI — Coming down very slowly

By |2023-12-12T16:18:41-05:00December 12th, 2023|Bonds, Commodities, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Headline CPI came in at 3.12% in November, that's .11% lower than October. From September to October the headline dropped .46%. For the year, we've averaged a monthly drop of .29%. So the pace of disinflation is slowing. Additionally, YOY changes in prices are still higher than June, so we've made no progress in the 2nd half of the year. [...]

Macro: Employment

By |2023-12-09T19:32:20-05:00December 9th, 2023|Economy|

Initial claims were up 1,000 to 220,000 and continue to not be a concern. Continuing claims on the week dropped below the 4-week moving average which was good to see. Challenger reported 45515 job cuts in November. That's up from 36,836 last month but down from 76,835 las November. To date in 2023, there have been 686,860 announced cuts. We [...]

Macro: GDPNow — 1.3%

By |2023-12-06T14:49:57-05:00December 6th, 2023|Economy|

The Nowcast for 4th quarter GDP is up .1% to 1.3% growth with the addition of this week's data. Auto sales and manufacturing orders were the main reports driving this slight uptick. The forecasts were raised for personal consumption expenditures as well as business equipment purchases. Disclaimer: This information is presented for informational purposes only and does not constitute an [...]

Macro: ADP Employment

By |2023-12-06T14:24:49-05:00December 6th, 2023|Economy|

Private companies added 103,000 workers to payrolls in November. This disappointed as consensus was expecting 123,000 additions. Also, the October number was revised down by 7,000 jobs erasing some of the strength off September's 32 month low in hiring of 89,000. On an annual basis employment is growing 2.035% and continues to slow from the hiring surge of 2021 and [...]

Macro: Jolts

By |2023-12-11T13:48:43-05:00December 6th, 2023|Economy|

Job openings has come down from an elevated level coming out of the pandemic. It has breached it's long term trend which may portend softness in the labor market. Disclaimer: This information is presented for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy any investment products. None of the [...]

Macro: Durable Goods

By |2023-12-05T17:48:29-05:00December 5th, 2023|Economy|

First and foremost, Durable goods peaked in the short term in June. A repeated theme, we saw some strength in Sep, October is again weak, expect November to be better given a really bad Nov 22. Aircraft orders are significant. The $16B drop in Durable Goods Orders is from a drop in non defense aircraft orders. The following 2 graphs [...]

GDPNow — down on the week — as are bond yields

By |2023-12-01T15:42:31-05:00December 1st, 2023|Bonds, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

After considering all the data this week, the GDPNow estimate is 1.2% growth. This is down from the initial estimate of 2.3% on Oct 27th and down from 2.1% at the end of last week. The big dial mover was today's ISM report. Specifically the report had negative repercussions for goods consumption, business equipment investment and goods exports. Rates have [...]

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