Foodflation... After coffee, cocoa... now is Butter approaching all-time highs!
Breakfast is getting more and more expensive Source: Barchart
What a difference five months makes for the Fed rate cut outlook. 😉
Source: Bloomberg Intelligence, Markets & Mayhem
Financial conditions in the US are tightening as rates rise, equities fall and we see liquidity diminishing.
This setup could be set to continue as long as we see: 1) Signs of inflation remaining sticky or re-accelerating 2) The Fed cautious about the timing of cutting 3) Large deficit spending amid rising rates causing interest rate spend to surge (could hit $1.6T by Dec y/y w/o a rate cut) Source: Markets & Mayhem
How is it possible? Below is the number of initial filings for unemployment insurance.
Five of the last six weeks, the exact same number. Effectively the same number in the last 11 weeks, except for the holiday weeks (President's Day and Easter). As highlighted by Jim Bianco, how is this statistically possible? --- Consider The US is a $28 trillion economy. It has 160 million workers. Initial claims for unemployment insurance are state programs, with 50 state rules, hundreds of offices, and 50 websites to file. Weather, seasonality, holidays, and economic vibrations drive the number of people filing claims from week to week. Yet this measure is so stable that it does not vary by even 1,000 applications a week. Just the number of applications incorrectly filed out every week should cause it to vary more than this...
Smaller companies generally spend a much higher % of their income on debt service, making them more sensitive to rising rates.
The interest coverage ratio (operating income / interest expense) for the small cap S&P 600 is 2.3 times vs. 7.6 times for the large cap sp500. Source: Charlie Bilello
2022-2024 summarised in one cartoon
Thru Andreas Steno Larsen
BREAKING >>> Fed Chair Powell says there has been a ‘lack of further progress’ this year on inflation
SUMMARY OF FED CHAIR POWELL'S COMMENTS (4/16/24): 1. Recent data "shows lack of further progress on inflation" 2. Inflation has "introduced new uncertainty" on whether the Fed can cut rates later this year 3. Fed can maintain higher rates for "as long as needed" 4. Recent data has not given greater confidence on inflation 5. Restrictive Fed policy needs more time to work 6. It will likely take longer to "regain confidence" on inflation https://lnkd.in/eMaJZNZZ Source: CNBC, The Kobeissi Letter, Trend Spider
Longer-term inflation expectations are rising again.
The market's implied rate of inflation over the next five years has risen to the highest level in more than a year, at 2.6%, according to breakeven rates. Source: Bloomberg, Lisa Abramowitz
