from Bloomberg Television
Consumer Sentiment Hits Lowest Level This Year as Inflation Weighs On Americans’ Wallets
by Derek Saul
Forbes
Consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level of 2024 this month, according to a University of Michigan poll, as Americans react sourly to inflation that won’t go away during the election year, though the economy remains far from the recession braced for by many.
Key Facts
The Michigan survey’s preliminary May index reading came in at 67.4, coming in far weaker than mean economist forecasts of 76 and registering its weakest level since November.
The sharper-than-expected decline came as Americans expressed “worries that inflation, unemployment and interest rates may all be moving in an unfavorable direction in the year ahead,” Joanne Hsu, the director of the phone poll, said in a statement.
Bond Traders Wait for CPI to Fuel – or Doom – the Market’s Rally
by Liz Capo McCormick and Ye Xie
Yahoo! Finance
The release of the April consumer-price index on Wednesday is poised to provide the biggest test yet of the rally that started this month when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell swatted away worries that the central bank may raise interest rates again. It gained steam after the Labor Department reported a slowdown in job growth, pulling yields down sharply from last month’s peaks.
The advance has increased the stakes in the upcoming inflation data — which could either extend it or doom it as another ill-fated turnaround. Bank of America Corp. strategists said the market will be in a “holding pattern” until then.
Inflation Tightens Its Grip On Biden’s Re-Election Prospects
by John Carney
Breitbart.com
Inflation Haunts the Biden White House
The specter of inflation haunts the corridors of the West Wing, and the Biden administration’s every attempt to exorcise the poltergeist of rising prices only deepens the grip of its possession.
The most recent consumer price index (CPI) reports have show inflation accelerating at an alarming pace. After the annualized monthly rise in CPI fell below two percent in October and November, inflation surged higher and has been running much hotter each month since.
In December, inflation rose at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent. In January, this accelerated to 3.7 percent. In February, we hit 5.4 percent. In March, the latest figure available, the consumer price index climbed at an annualized rate of 4.6 percent.
How Do People’s Experiences of Inflation Differ?
by Alberto Cavallo
EonoFact
The Issue:
Inflation rates are among the most closely watched economic statistics, but, as with many statistics that attempt to capture what is happening throughout the economy, aggregate measures mask important particulars. Measuring inflation requires simplifying assumptions about the basket of goods that a typical consumer purchases in a given month as well as eliding demographic differences and distinctions within product categories. Looking closely at prices within disaggregated product groups and using high-frequency online price data helps to reveal the nuances underneath monthly inflation numbers and how the experience of rising prices differs across groups of people.
Trump’s Plans For a Second Term: Raise Prices On Everything
by Ryan Teague Beckwith
MSNBC
Donald Trump has long cited his economics degree from the prestigious Wharton School as evidence of his “super genius stuff” skills in business.
But if he were a student there right now, he’d get a failing grade for his proposals’ effects on rising prices.
With polls showing that inflation remains a top concern among voters, the presumptive Republican nominee has somehow put together a campaign platform featuring multiple proposals that would raise prices on everything from groceries to new cars, both directly and indirectly.
Gold Market Commentary: Higher-For-Longer: Inflation Not Growth
from Gold.org
New-high fatigue?
Gold had another good month in April, posting a 4% gain and ending the month at US$2,307/oz. Unlike March, gold finished off its intra-month high from probable buyer reticence and profit-taking – reflected in falling Chinese premia, lower Indian imports and flat-lining COMEX positioning. On the flipside, the trend in North American gold ETF flows turned positive – albeit slightly – joining strong demand for Asian ETFs.
Turning to our Gold Return Attribution Model (GRAM), existing variables and their longer-term relationships to gold returns have, for the second consecutive month, failed to capture price strength in its entirety. Adding a geopolitical risk proxy as well as positioning in the Shanghai futures exchange offers an explanation for some of the moves in March and April, but one other major explanatory factor is still missing. In this context, we believe that central bank buying, as recorded in our recent Gold Demand Trends report and evidenced in higher LBMA volumes, was once again a significant contributor to gold returns.
Considerable Uncertainty About Inflation Over the Next Three Months
by Joshua Gibson
FX Street
Mary C. Daly, President of the Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of San Francisco, highlighted the uncertainty facing the Fed while participating in a fireside chat at George Mason University in Virginia.
Key highlights
The last three months has left considerable uncertainty about the next few months of inflation.
There is considerable uncertainty about inflation in the next three months.
Daly is getting different signals from firms who say consumers seem to be getting choosy but input prices are not yet receding.
There’s Still a Big Hidden Force for High Inflation in the Economy
by John Carney
Breitbart.com
The Pandemic Saving Rate Fueled Inflation
The American consumer may have one more jump scare left for the economy.
Slasher films all tend to end the same way. The murderous psycho has seemingly been vanquished. The protagonists finally can breathe a sigh of relief in a moment of calm. Suddenly, the killer bursts into the scene, showing he’s still viable enough to make a final homicidal plunge.
The killer in our economy was arguably the excess savings built up during the pandemic period. For around 18 months, from the the onset of the lockdowns and attendant economic recession in March 2020 through August of 2021, households rapidly accumulated savings.
Fed’s Collins Says Reaching 2% Inflation Goal May Take Longer
by Steve Matthews
BNN Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Susan Collins signaled interest rates will likely need to be held at a two-decade high for longer than previously thought to damp demand and reduce price pressures.
Collins, who noted the lack of disinflationary progress made in 2024, said slower economic growth will be necessary to make sure inflation remains on a sustainable path to the Fed’s 2% goal. She didn’t offer an estimate on when rate cuts may happen.
“The recent upward surprises to activity and inflation suggest the likely need to keep policy at its current level until we have greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%,” Collins said Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Argentina Devalues Currency by 50% in ‘Shock’ Measure Against Hyperinflation
Argentina devalued its currency by more than 50 percent Tuesday in a set of “shock” measures aimed at reviving a crumbling economy and tackling triple-digit inflation.
by News Wires
France24
The government of President Javier Milei, a libertarian who swept from obscurity to the top office vowing to chainsaw spending, also announced cuts to generous state subsidies and a halt to all new public construction projects.
In a pre-recorded video message, Economy Minister Luis Caputo took pains to explain to Argentines the causes of their decades of recurrent economic crises, debt, inflation and fiscal deficits.
Annual inflation is currently at 140 percent and poverty levels at 40 percent in Latin America’s third-biggest economy.
The government coffers are also empty, and Milei has repeatedly said: “There is no money.”