The Bowtie Economist's Daily Dose of 70-Word Wisdom

While April core capital expenditures, defined as nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, rose 0.3% M-o-M, March was revised down to -0.1% M-o-M. Moreover, Y-o-Y capex is now growing just 0.5% Y-o-Y, has been barely positive since 6/23, and inflation-adjusted has…

The Friday File: Originally known as Decoration Day, as Americans decorated Civil War soldiers’ graves on 5/30, Memorial Day became an official national holiday, and its date was made the last Monday in May, effective 1971. This year, 43.8 million…

In 2019, the number of S&P 500 firms mentioning inflation during their earnings calls averaged 129/quarter. In 20Q1, it collapsed to 58, but then steadily rose through 22Q2 when it reached 412. Since, it’s steadily declined and in 24Q1 is…

Since 1/22, the daily change in bond yields on days the Fed releases meeting minutes (which happens eight times/year) versus all other trading days is insignificant. For the 2-year Treasury, on minutes release days the average absolute daily change is…

In 2013 and 2014, the number of weather/climate disasters exceeding $1 billion inflation-adjusted was 10. In 2017, the number hit 19, in 2020 it was 22, and after declining to 20 in 2021 and 18 in 2022, the number reached…

It took the Dow Jones Industrial Average 873 trading days to go from 30,000 on 11/24/20 to 40,000 on 5/16/24. The largest contributor to the increase was Goldman Sachs, which contributed 1,500 of the 10,000-point gain. Microsoft and Caterpillar both…

The Friday File: Drumheller, Alberta’s attempt to set the record for the largest gathering of people dressed as dinosaurs, failed due to high turnout. While a Guinness World Records adjudicator was present and counted over 3,000 people, they all had…

April real retail sales were flat M-o-M and Y-o-Y, extending a trend of mildly slowing sales. After jumping 15% due to Covid, retail sales remained strong through 1/23 but have weakened slightly as post-Covid services spending has, unsurprisingly, risen. Additionally,…

Inflation eased slightly in April. The CPI rose 3.4% Y-o-Y, down from 3.5% in March. Similarly, core-CPI rose 3.6% Y-o-Y, the lowest rate since 4/21 and down 3.8% M-o-M. However, both the CPI and core-CPI rose 0.3% M-o-M, much too…

In what can only be described as insanity, meme stocks such as GameStop, AMC, Blackberry, and Beyond Meat, are once again making headlines with their sudden rapid price appreciation. Monday, GameStop rose 74%, and AMC 78%. Since 5/1/24, GameStop is…