September is typically a tough months for markets. This year is fulfilling on that promise of weakness & volatility as equity markets have been reminiscent of a popular ice cream flavor the past two weeks- Rocky Road! As we noted last week, there are quite a few major events happening in September and once they […]

If you’ve been a loyal reader of the Friday Five, you will be all too able to name the “star of the show” when it has come to economic data over the past several years. You guessed it – inflation! Yet after this week’s two inflation prints (discussed in more detail below), I think it’s […]

This past week, Wednesday June 12th was a big news day for markets. It doesn’t happen often that a monthly inflation report (Consumer Price Index) and a Federal Reserve Rate announcement happen on the same day, but that is in fact what occurred this week. The result? Happy markets and happy investors. Let’s start with […]

Two key inflation reports were released for March this week – the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Producer Price Index (PPI). Let’s look at these reports and then discuss a question that may be on your mind – why is the market reacting so much to these data points? The CPI for March 2024 […]

Welcome to April and Q2 2024. Let’s look back at the past two weeks and catch-up on things! Strong Start to the Year Let’s not dive into the second quarter without first revisiting how exceptional the past three months have been for investors. The S&P 500 (a popular index for the US equity market) rose […]

While most of America was focused on setting their NCAA brackets earlier this week, market watchers were placing “bets” of their own on the Federal Reserve and the path of interest rates. As was widely expected, on Wednesday the Federal Reserve once again left rates unchanged (leaving the Federal Funds rate range at 5.25-5.5%). They […]

This week, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2024 was released. The popular inflation report came in ahead of expectations, showing an increase in inflation during the month. CPI rose 0.39% in January, 0.09% more than expected. On a year-over-year basis, the index was up 3.1% (lower than December’s 3.4% but higher than 2.9% […]

We may have started a new year, but we are still talking about inflation! On Thursday, December’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report was released. The report showed the prices rose 3.4% year over year (compared to 3.1% in November) – however, after removing volatile food and energy, Core CPI rose 3.9% month over month (a […]

Earlier this week, two inflation reports were published for October. Let’s take a look at what they said and the market reaction. First up was Consumer Price Index (“CPI”). It came in at 0.23% month over month, compared to 0.30% consensus. Year over year rise was 3.2%, far slower than consensus of 3.7%. Shelter slowed […]

The “data dependent” Federal Reserve received another two data points this week as two inflation reports for September were published. Let’s take a look at what each revealed – and what they may mean for the path forward. Producer Price Index (“PPI”) First up was PPI, which measures wholesale prices (cost producers pay for finished […]