Today wasn't the best day for US economic releases. The 2nd revision of 1Q GDP was (unsurprisingly) revised down from 0.2% to -0.7%. The release that caught our eye, however, was the initial release of corporate profits in the US for the first quarter. After-tax...
TIPS derived breakeven inflation expectations have started to fall once again in May. For a little context, starting in last June, breakeven inflation started a steady march lower that lasted until January of this year. Since that time, we have seen a rebound in inflation...
The latest (March) Case-Shiller Home Price Index was released this morning and there were several noteworthy data points in the report. First, our 3-month diffusion index that measures the number of cities where prices are higher now than they were three months ago increased by...
For most investors, a negative or low positive correlation between equity prices and long-term bond prices is a preferred and time-tested way of keeping one's portfolio volatility low. However, this has been very difficult over the past two years as the four-year rolling correlation between...
The relationship between the Japanese Yen and the spread between the US 30-year treasury yield and US 10-year yield has had a very tight negative correlation (-0.85) over the past 10-years (since 1986 when the bond spread series begins the correlation is -0.61). Since the...
The quiet, subtle decline in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet continued in April. As of May 1st, the Fed’s balance was at $4.47 trillion. While undoubtedly still incredibly large, the Fed’s balance sheet is about $45 billion less than its peak level on January 16,...
From 1974 to 2007, the long-term US growth rate in real GDP generally fell between 3-3.5% on annualized basis (excluding the v-shaped bounce from 1982-1984). We define long-term here by looking at the 10-year annualized percentage change. With the 1Q now in the books, this...
The trend toward knowledge investments and away from traditional investments in fixed assets such as equipment and structures continued in the 1Q in the US. Investment in intangible property products now account 4.1% of GDP....
We won’t know how the first quarter officially ended for another nine days but the Chicago Fed just gave us a hint that it will be below trend growth. According to the Chicago Fed National Activity Index, the three-month period ending in March just posted...
US industrial production in March declined the most month-over-month since 2009. Weather again played a role as colder weather in February led to a spike in utilities output last month and this month we saw the effects of the unwinding of that spike....
Three weeks ago we mentioned how Fed assets were finally declining on a quarterly basis. Since then we have had a few more data points released and the trend is still downward....
The second half of 2014 and the first month of 2015 (latest data available) shows a significant increase in total miles driven and total miles driven per capita. Total miles driven on an annual basis has reached an all-time high. The 2.12% year-over-year change is...
Not even a month ago, we wrote about how it looked like the market was pricing in two rate hikes in 2015 and four in 2016. Well, apparently a lot has changed (at least regarding expectations) since then....
The spread between junk bonds and 10-year treasury on 6/23/14 hit a very narrow 222 basis points. At that time, the S&P 500 was trading at 1962. Since then the junk bond spread widened to over 5% in December and currently stands at 415 basis...
Corelogic’s home price index came out this morning and showed that home prices across the board, including and excluding distressed sales, are at a 7-year high in the US. Single-family combined homes including distressed sales rose by 1.12% MoM in March. Excluding distressed sales, it...
