Inflation Tag

U.S. Core PCE Inflation is Still Not Coming Down

02 Jun, by Brian Clark in Economy, News

In the United States, Core PCE Inflation is still 5.0% after a recent reversal in disinflation. This measure is followed by the Fed and excludes volatile food and energy inflation. It has remained elevated on an annualized quarterly basis, with a 1-year percent change of...

Hawkish & Uncertain

27 Apr, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy, News

Yesterday JP Morgan introduced a new model to quantify the last 20 years of Federal Reserve statements and speeches. While we aren’t privy to the details of the AI model, we will just assume that the model properly captures dovish and hawkish language. Based on Fed...

Common and Unique Threads of European Inflation

20 Jan, by Austin Mann in Economy

We got consumer price reports for many European countries this week. The main story for the Eurozone is still one of sticky inflation driven by elevated food and fuel prices, though there are some differences emerging among the major European economies. In this analysis we...

Inversion

20 Dec, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy, Markets

In a recent San Francisco Federal Reserve Publication titled “Monetary Policy Stance is Tighter Than Fed Funds Rate,” the authors argue that the “all in” policy rate is actually higher than the Fed Funds rate would suggest. They open: “The Federal Reserve’s use of forward...

Chinese Devaluation Seems Likely

16 Aug, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy

Over the weekend, we got a slew of data showing a generally weak economy. Below are the actual data compared with the expectations from Bloomberg. Of course, the headline grabber was the -31.4% drop in residential property sales, but across the board, from industrial production to...

Bullish Back Half

01 Jul, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Markets

We think we could see a bullish back half of the year for equity markets. Our analysis follows in our Quarterly Strategy Report. Prefer to download this presentation in PDF? Please click here. 1. Summary -In the first half of 2022, markets experienced the largest wealth destruction...

Inflation, Growth, China and Financial Markets

19 May, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy, Markets

All year inflation has been the narrative driving markets. Since December 2021, once the Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM) took off, rates have risen in tandem. But, interestingly enough the BCOM has been flat since peaking on March 8, 2022. Every day we seem to be blasted...

The Chinese Devaluation Continues

11 May, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy, Markets

Just today, as US inflation came in a touch hotter than expected, the Chinese Yuan is pulling lower, testing the lows of May 9, 2022. The five-day rate of change is fairly extreme by anything we’ve seen over the last few years. The last time...

China’s Potential to Alleviate Global Inflation

07 Apr, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy

For a confluence of reasons ranging from COVID to property sector problems, China has been experiencing slower growth. Many cross-asset relationships suggest that a devaluation in China could help spur growth. Whether this will happen is another story, but if the Chinese Yuan began a...

Is Inflation on the Cusp of Coming Down?

09 Feb, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy, Markets

Tomorrow we get the consumer price index year-over-year for January, with expectations for 7.25%. This would take the CPI to a new high for the cycle, rising from 7% year-over-year from December. We would like to see the print undershoot and offer several reasons why it...

Does the Fed Have a Brewing Velocity Problem?

17 Nov, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy

A basic tautology that economists consider when thinking about monetary policy is the velocity of money. MV=PQ translates into Money*Velocity=Price*Quantity. Of course, price*quantity is nominal GDP while “M” is the money supply (for example, M2) while “V” is velocity, or the number of times the...

Is Inflation Starting to Impact Equity Returns?

12 Oct, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy, Markets

Fed funds futures for 2022 and 2023 have broken out to new highs, likely on the back of rising inflation expectations. As things stand now, the market is looking for three hikes by the end of 2023, with the effective fed funds moving from 8bps...

Mid-Quarter Update: What Does Transitory Mean?

02 Sep, by Steven Vannelli, CFA in Economy, Markets, Portfolio Management

In this Mid-Quarter Update, we discuss our analysis on the following topics: -Recent readings on consumer confidence have rolled over. The surveys are validated by the stagnation in real consumer spending in the last few months. -In conjunction with the slowdown in house sales and durable goods...