From the category archives:
Lots to cover this morning, so I’ll try to be brief …
First, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 5% overnight, the biggest decline in eight months. That may not sound like much because the darn thing has soared 79% so far this year. But the reason for it is worth noting: The government appears to be [...]
{ 1 comment }
It’s another “Fed day” today, with the FOMC’s two-day policy meeting set to wrap up later and the results to be announced at roughly 2:15 eastern. Market betting is that the Fed will cut rates by 50 basis points to a record-low 0.5%. But one has to wonder if that really matters. The “effective” federal [...]
{ 2 comments }
The big story over the last couple of days continus to be oil. Yesterday, oil prices tanked by more than
$5 after China raised the domestic price of refined
products (gasoline, diesel, etc.). Why would that matter? The idea is that if more consumers have to pay the “real”
price of energy (China, Malaysia, Venezuela, and other
countries subsidize or [...]
{ 0 comments }
This week is a biggie on the inflation front, with import price data out this morning
and the Consumer Price Index coming tomorrow. So what did the April numbers show? That import inflation is simply out of control. Consider:
* Import prices jumped 1.8% on the month, bigger than the
1.6% increase that economists were expecting. More importantly, [...]
{ 0 comments }
Punch up a crude oil futures quote, ladies and gentlemen, and that’s what you would have seen a few moments ago for the
price of a barrel of black gold. Even the “see no
inflation, hear no inflation” Federal Reserve crowd
can’t seem to ignore this market action any more. Bloomberg just ran with a story called “Fisher [...]
{ 0 comments }
Look, there’s no way to sugarcoat the import price figures that were released today. They stunk to high heaven. Some
details:
* Overall import prices surged 2.8% in March, well above the 2% rise that was expected. If you strip out
petroleum, you still get a very large 1.1% rise. Strip out all fuels? Prices were up 0.9%, the [...]
{ 0 comments }
