The Beat Goes On
Hey There Income Hunter, The broad indexes put in their fourth-straight higher weekly close. All sectors were up on the week as investors cheered the big drop in both consumer and producer prices. Plus, the small business and UMich sentiment indexes increased for the first time in months. The only thing lacking was volume, which […]
A Key Signal From Bonds
Hey There Income Hunter, I always stress how important bonds are to the overall market signals. Well, this week might have been the turning point in interest rates heading back to higher levels (they’ve whipsawed around a bit of late as the Fed lurches forward). Everything was great heading into Thursday, and the market was […]
Post-CPI, Is it Time to Celebrate?
Hey There Income Hunter, We have witnessed an incredible one-month drop in inflation. The media was giddy over the drop, and it certainly helps … But there is more to the numbers than the headline print. Excluding energy, consumer prices in July were 0.4% higher than they were in June. The decrease was primarily due […]
CPI Has Peaked. Now What?
Hey There Income Hunter, The Fed and Biden administration finally got a bit of relief from the soaring inflation we have endured in 2022. Here are the highlights … Month-over-month: Headline CPI was flat Core was +.3% m/o/m Both were .2 below expectations Year-over-year: Headline CPI was up 8.5% […]
IRA & IRS
Hey There Income Hunter, Well we all know who the real winners of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 are The IRS, of course! $80 billion over the next 10-years … Sharpen your pencil – they are coming after you! (I kid, but only sort of.) Actually, Sens. Sinema and Manchin did OK for themselves, […]
The Data that Matters This Week
Hey There Income Hunter, Friday’s non-farm payroll report has thrown a wrench into the Fed’s plans. And just when oil price drop was giving the Fed a critical piece of the puzzle for it to pull back the reins on tightening. Oil dipped below pre-Russian invasion price thanks to Biden’s opening up of the strategic […]
Payroll Panic for Powell
Talk about a fly in the ointment! The worst thing that could have happened for the Fed was yesterday’s payroll number, which increased by 528,000 in July. First, non-farm payrolls are a very backward-looking number because employment changes occur late in economic cycles … What’s more, hourly earnings have been averaging 5.2% year-over-year increases for […]
Did the Taiwan Trip Incent China to Did the Taiwan Trip Incent China to Buy More Gold?Buy More Gold?
Hey There Income Hunter, Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan has the world trying to work out if the small Pacific island will be the United States’ next big crisis. The bottom line is, Pelosi is the first high-ranking US official to visit Taiwan since Newt Gingrich in 1997. And the reason for the absence is […]
Fed Speakers Fail to Stop Stocks
Hey There Income Hunter, Fed hawks sent out by Jerome Powell to put a wet blanket on the market’s reaction to his FOMC speech have failed. Miserably. Has the Fed’s credibility been destroyed – or is the stock market just testing the central bank’s resolve? I think it may be a […]
Pelosi “Stands With Taiwan.” What Happens Next?
Hey There Income Hunter, Whatever Nancy Pelosi’s true intentions, her trip to Asia will not help the US economy. This maneuver will backfire in a similar way to the Russian sanctions. The US does not have the power it once had, and we should be setting ourselves to regain the power instead of demanding it […]