Before Covid-19, the cost to ship a 40ft container from Shanghai to the Port of LA had generally been slightly below $2,000. Soon after Covid-19 appeared, shipping costs doubled to $4,000, where they stayed through the first four months of…
While headline CPI inflation fell from 9.1% Y-o-Y to 8.7% and monthly headline inflation fell from a shockingly high 1.3% in June to 0% in July, contain your enthusiasm. This only suggests inflation has peaked. Y-o-Y core inflation remains at…
Among firms in the S&P 500, information technology had a great run last week and led all sectors, rising 2%. Consumer discretionary and communication services followed, each with a gain of slightly more than 1%. Industrials and utilities were also…
With 528,000 net new jobs, upward revisions to prior months, and employment now slightly above its pre-Covid level, the July jobs report was absolutely gobsmacking. However, the unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5%, tying a 52-year low, the labor…
The Friday File: Earlier this week, reliever Eric Chavez was traded, making it the 10th time he has changed uniforms in the major leagues, thus making him the most traded player in baseball history. Former pitcher Dick Littlefield is next…
While the anticipated Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 might do great things for the environment, healthcare, and the deficit, it’s unlikely to much help inflation, and any benefit is likely to be years out. It’s because the overall spending and…
The Fed’s favorite inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditure index, increased 6.8% Y-o-Y in June, up from 6.3% Y-o-Y in May, and its highest reading since 1/82! Moreover, the employment-cost index, a measure of wages and benefits for civilian workers,…
At LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group, whose brands include Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and others, reported a 28% Y-o-Y sales increase, and at Hermes, home of the $20,000 Birkin bag, sales are up 23% Y-o-Y. Conversely, McDonald’s is…
After contracting at an annualized rate of 1.6% in 22Q1, GDP again shrank in 22Q2 by 0.9%. The reason; inventories reduced 22Q2 GDP by 2.01 points. Similarly, net exports boosted GDP by 1.43 points after reducing it by 3.23 points…
The Friday File: Batting average predicts 67% of the runs a team scores. On-base percentage, the frequency with which a player reaches base/at-bat, predicts 78%. On-base percentage plus slugging percentage (OPS), the sum of the on-base percentage and the average…