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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,…

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…

The big supermajor oil companies collectively produce about 15% of the world’s oil, with Exxon the biggest and producing almost four million bbl/day. Conversely, national oil companies produce almost 60% of the world’s crude, with Saudi Aramco at 12 million…

The pool of negative-yielding corporate and sovereign debt is down from a peak of $18.4 trillion on 12/11/20 to $2.4 trillion on 7/22/22, but up from $1.93 trillion on 6/17/22, a level first surpassed in 1/15 when the ECB and…

Investor home purchases peaked at 27.6% of sales in 22Q1, up from 24.8% in 21Q4 and 19.2% in 21Q1, the first quarter of elevated investor purchases. In 2019, investor purchases averaged 16%/quarter. Numerically, investor purchases rose from 200,000/quarter in 2019,…

June single-family housing starts fell 8.1% M-o-M and 15.7% Y-o-Y, while single-family permits declined 8% M-o-M and 11.4% Y-o-Y as they return to pre-covid levels. Conversely, multifamily starts are up 10.3% M-o-M and 15.6% Y-o-Y, while multifamily permits are up…

The Friday File: Very recently, a bottle of champagne sold for $2.5 million, probably obliterating the record for the costliest bottle containing alcohol ever sold. Why so much? It has five NFTs of cartoon characters on the bottle. Apparently, the…

Since at least 1950, the year following US midterm elections has always seen the S&P 500 rise. During this 70-year period there have been 10 elections with a Republican president, and eight with a Democratic one. The best year for…

Last month, new home contract cancellations hit 14.5%, their highest level in years outside of 4/20’s Covid-tainted peak of 16.5% and are 30% above their seasonally adjusted pre-Covid rate. Similarly, the percentage of pending-home sales that fell out of contract…