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 […]

A sure sign of the passing of time these days is the release of monthly inflation reports. August 2023’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) were released this week and the results were..well, mixed. Let’s look at CPI first. Month over month, headline CPI rose 0.6%. The core metric (excluding volatile food […]

One of the most important economic releases for August came out today (Thursday August 10th) – the July CPI report – revealing the latest inflation dynamics at play in the United States. August has been a challenging month for investors, as markets have reversed their upside trendlines sharply in the first several trading days of […]

Let’s travel back in time. Friends is the top TV show. All for You by Janet Jackson is the top song. AOL has 28 million users and AOL.com is the top website. George W Bush is president. Flip phones and Blackberries dominate the cell phone market. Gas is $1.46 per gallon. It’s early 2001. A […]