Hot enough to make the Fed say ,”75, please”? November jobs report comes in above forecasts
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 263,000 in November, the Labor Department said today. (And the October jobs total was revised upward to a gain of 284,000.) The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%. Average hourly wages rose 0.6% in November from October. That was the...
Please Watch My New YouTube Video: The Fed Is Now On Message–Ask Why
Today I posted my two-hundred-and-eleventh YouTube video: The Fed Is Now On Message–Ask Why Today’s topic: The Fed is Now On Message, Ask Why. Last week I spoke about how confusing the Fed’s messaging had been recently, but this week, everybody has...
Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Is the Fed Confusing or Just Confused?
Today I posted my two-hundred-and-ninth YouTube video: Is the Fed Confusing or Just Confused? Today’s topic: Is The Fed Confusing, or Just Confused? First, Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Fed came out with a very mixed message about the Fed’s...
Friday’s release of November jobs report will decide if year-end rally continues
Economists surveyed by FactSet forecast that the November jobs report, set for release Friday morning, will show that the economy added 220,000 new jobs in the month. And that the unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.8% from 3.7% in October If that forecast is...
Meanwhile… there’s tomorrow’s release of CPI inflation for October
It’s likely to be days, weeks, months–if we have to wait from a December runoff vote in the Georgia Senate race–before we know who controls what house of Congress and by how many seats. In the meantime, tomorrow, November 10, brings the October CPI...
This week it’s CPI inflation time again
Another big macroeconomic report to hang over stocks, depressing volatility. After all, who wants to get out ahead of Thursday’s Consumer Price Index inflation report for October? Economists surveyed by Bloomberg project that CPI headline inflation will slip to...
Pivot hopes are back and stocks rally on stronger than expected jobs report. (Go figure!)
Economists were expecting a light October jobs report this morning with projections from economists surveyed by Bloomberg at 195,000. Instead, the Labor Department reported that the economy added 261,000 jobs in October. (And revised the September report up to 315,000...
Not what the market wanted to hear from the Fed today
At first investors and traders thought they heard the Federal Reserve signal that the central bank was thinking about a pivot to a policy of cutting interest rates. And stocks rallied. But then Fed chair Jerome Powell “clarified” the Fed’s thinking...
Just before Fed interest rate decision, big rise in job openings results in second thoughts
The JOLTS survey from the Department of Labor showed a big jump in job openings in September. Which raised market worries that the Fed will raise interest rates tomorrow, November 2, by a hefty 75 basis points and signal that it is farther away from a pivot toward...
Nevermind–stocks take back yesterday’s gains as traders rethink their interest rate positioning
After climbing 2.60% yesterday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 2.37% today. Same story with the Dow Jones Industrial Average–up 2.83% yesterday, but down 1.34% today. And the NASDAQ Composite–up 2.23% yesterday and down 3.08% today. And the...
Stocks soar, bonds fall on worse than expected CPI inflation news
Headline Consumer Price Index inflation rose at an 8.2% annual rate in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. Month-to-month inflation rose by 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis. The month-to-month increase was just 0.1% in August. Core...
Oh, No! economists say ahead of tomorrow’s CPI inflation number
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg are looking for core inflation, that is inflation without volatile food and energy prices, to return to a four-decade high in tomorrow’s report of CPI inflation in September. Projections are looking for a 0.4%increase n core...
Wholesale prices rise more than expected in September
Somehow stocks seem to be turning this into good inflation news this morning ahead of tomorrow’s big CPI inflation report–The Standard & Poor’s 500 is up 0.19% as of 12:30 p.m. New York time and even the NASDAQ Composite is slightly ahead with a...
Sticky inflation in today’s PCE report rests short-term market trend on October 13 CPI inflation numbers
The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, rose in August. The index climbed 0.3% from July. Year over year the PCE is up 6.2%. Excluding food and energy, the core PC index rose 0.6% in August from July and at...
Signs of the Next Bear Market Rally Story Yesterday–Will It Take Root?
One of the oddest things about yesterday’s reaction to news from the Federal Reserve of a 75 basis point increase in interest rates was that the market initially rallied. Yesterday, September 21, from 3801 at 10:25 a.m.New York time, the Standard &...
Fed raises interest rates by another 75 basis points as expected; Dot Plot signals rate increases for well into 2023
At today’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the U.S. central bank raised interest rates by 75 basis points for a third straight meeting. That took the Fed’s short-term benchmark rate to a range of 3% to 3.25%. This move was widely expected...
Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Quick Pick Kroger
My one-hundred-and-seventy-sixth YouTube video: “Quick Pick Kroger” went up today. Grocery stocks aren’t very volatile. Normally. So when shares of Kroger, the nation’s free-standing largest grocery chain, went up almost 7.5% on Friday,...
Please Watch My New YouTube Video: The Fed’s Real Inflation Problem
My one-hundred-and-seventy-fifth YouTube video: “The Fed’s Real Inflation Problem” went up today. The CPI numbers came out and they were disappointing with inflation running at an 8.3% annual rate in August. But the inflation problem is worst than...
CPI headline inflation likely to dip in Tuesday report–market will cheer; Fed will shrug
All attention on Tuesday morning’s report of Consumer Price Index inflation for August. It is likely to drive stocks higher in a continuation of Friday’s advance. But the report will not change the Federal Reserve’s mind about increasing interest...
Why I’m looking for another Bear market rally to begin in the next few weeks
The swings today, September 8, are a good reminder of how volatile this market is. The Standard & Poor’s 500 broke to the upside with a gain of 0.80% as of 11:20 New York time. Then, with Fed chair Jerome Powell emphasizing the central bank’s...
The Fed keeps pointing at 4% interest rates–or higher
Yesterday Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin told The Financial Times that interest rates must stay high until inflation improves. 4% interest rates wouldn’t surprise him, he said. And today Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said at the...
Fed members push back on market’s inflation has peaked rally
It didn’t take long. The pixels were barely dry on yesterday’s CPI inflation report–headline inflation fell to a year-over-year rate of 8.5% in July from 9.1% in June–before members of the Federal Reserve warned that the stock market rally on...
The big event of the week is Wednesday’s CPI inflation report–expect some nerves before the news and waves after it
All eyes will be on the July CPI inflation (Consumer Price Index) report due on Wednesday, August 10, before the market open. The market hope is that we’ll see the first signs that inflation has peaked after the headline CPI inflation surged at a 9.1% annual...
Watch my new YouTube video: The Fed Talks but the Market’s Not Listening
My one-hundred-and-sixty-fifth YouTube video “Trend of the Week The Fed Talks but the Market’s Not Listening” went up today. The market has strongly rallied in the last month, in good part on the optimistic belief in a “soft landing” from...
This looks like the Bear Market rally I’ve been waiting for
After looking like it was over earlier in the week with a significant pull back on Tuesday, July 26, stocks have rallied in the last two days, gaining 3.85% by the Thursday, July 28 close from that Tuesday low. And right now all the ducks are lined up in a row for a...
Initial claims for unemployment edge upwards ahead of surge in announced layoffs
Initial claims for unemployment totaled 251,000 for the week ended July 16, up 7,000 from the week before, the Labor Department reported today, July 21. Economists were looking for 240,000 initial claims. That was the highest weekly number since November 13, 2021 The...
A full 100-basis-point interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve on July 27 is still unlikely but it’s no longer impossible
After Wednesday’s report that CPI inflation hit an annual 9.1% rate in June, a 100-basis-point interest rate increase at the Federal Reserve’s July 27 meeting is on the table. (Which is literally what Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told reporters...
Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Inflation isn’t about to get better
My one-hundred-and-fifty-seventh YouTube video “Inflation isn’t about to get better” went up today. Yesterday, we had new CPI inflation numbers, and the bar keeps pushing higher with annual inflation reaching 9.1% in June. I think if you are making...
Demand destruction? Inflation? Yep–Starbucks and Dunkin’ see traffic decline in June
According to new data from foot traffic analytics platform Placer.ai, coffee visits at big coffee chains like Dunkin’ and Starbucks (SBUX) dropped below traffic for quick service restaurants for the first time all year during June. The drop in June is quite a...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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