The retailer also aims to grow sign-ups for Walmart+ after initially downplaying the membership program, Doug McMillon said at a Morgan Stanley event.

by Catherine Douglas Moran
Grocery Dive

With 2025 just a few weeks away, Walmart’s top executive expects food price inflation won’t budge from around its current level at the start of the new year — instead of ticking down, as consumers have hoped.

“I don’t know what the whole year is going to look like. I hope and I think it could be better as these commodities adjust — some of them,” Doug McMillon, the retailer’s president and CEO, said Tuesday during the 2024 Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference.

McMillon said he is “disappointed” at where food inflation currently sits, highlighting that eggs and dairy are the main drivers. Customers have been upset that food prices are currently “a lot higher” than before the pandemic, McMillon said, noting that Walmart has invested in rollbacks to lower prices. Food-at-home prices have jumped 25% compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to FMI – The Food Industry Association.

Continue Reading at GroceryDive.com…

from Capital.com

by Seana Smith and Madison Mills
Yahoo! Finance

Economic activity in the services sector fell in November from its October levels, according to the Institute of Supply Management’s (ISM) Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). Services economic activity remains expansionary despite the month-over-month dip. Natixis CIB Americas chief US economist Christopher Hodge joins Seana Smith and Madison Mills on Catalysts to break down the data and what it signals about the US economy.

“This number is a little bit lower than it was a month prior and a little bit lower than what was forecast, but this is still an expansionary territory,” Hodge says, adding, “This mirrors the economy overall.”

“The higher print for the price is paid, that should be a little bit concerning to the Fed because that does confirm a theme that we’ve seen over the past few months of progress on inflation stagnating a bit,” he notes.

Continue Reading at Finance.Yahoo.com…

from Fox News

by Chris Gosier
Fordham Now

Even as the rate of inflation subsided in 2023, the amount of stress it was causing in the U.S. population actually ticked up—indicating that researchers need to pay more attention to how people are affected by rising prices for food, fuel, housing, and other basic needs over time.

That’s according to a study co-authored by Fordham economics professor Sophie Mitra, Ph.D., and researchers in health-related fields at other universities. It shows that after four decades in which inflation stayed low and didn’t pose a serious problem in America, the mental health impacts of its spike in the past few years are ripe for study, Mitra said.

“That’s an open field in terms of research,” she said. “We know … that unemployment has very detrimental effects on mental health, and that a job loss can lead to depression and other negative mental health outcomes.” Inflation has received less study, but seems to be “a very important potential determinant of well-being, including mental health,” she said.

Continue Reading at Now.Fordham.edu…

from The Rich Dad Channel

by John Phelan
The Daily Economy

Fifty years ago, the Minneapolis Tribune reported a silver lining in an otherwise gloomy economic climate.

“Christmas tree prices aren’t expected to rise this season,” the newspaper reported in November 1974, “a small solace for many struggling Minnesota families.”?

That month, the annual rate of inflation hit a peak of 12.2 percent. It would fall to 5.0 percent in December 1976 before peaking again at 14.6 percent in March 1980. Between 1970 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 86.9 percent compared to 24.0 percent from 1960 to 1969.

Continue Reading at TheDailyEconomy.org…

from Bloomberg Television

by Courtenay Brown
Axios

The Fed looks on track to cut interest rates again when its leaders meet in two weeks. But after that, it’s anybody’s guess how much easing will come in 2025 given the latest inflation trends.

Why it matters: Inflation progress has nearly halted as other uncertainties about the economy, including the possible effects of the next administration’s policies, pile up.

– Fed officials are sounding more nervous about renewed inflationary pressures than a labor market cooldown, in contrast to three months ago when they first cut interest rates.

What they’re saying: In a speech Monday, Fed governor Christopher Waller delivered the vivid monetary policy metaphor of the month, comparing the more than two-year battle against inflation to the tiring sparring in a mixed martial arts cage.

Continue Reading at Axios.com…

from Raoul Pal The Journey Man

With a Federal Reserve meeting coming up later this month, officials are preparing for a debate over whether to cut their influential interest rates for a third time in a row.

by Terry Lane
Investopedia

Despite markets anticipating a rate cut at the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting in December, some officials say they still don’t know whether enough progress is being made on inflation.

The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) has cut its influential federal funds rate at the past two meetings. However, the December meeting may be a closer call as Fed officials called for a cautious approach and inflation ticked back up in its most recent readings.

“After making a lot of progress over the past year and a half, the recent data indicate that progress may be stalling,” Waller said. “I take the recent inflation data seriously, but we saw a similar uptick in inflation a year ago that was followed by a continued decline, so I also don’t want to overreact.”

Continue Reading at Investopedia.com…

from David Lin

by Piero Cingari
Yahoo! Finance

Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler said on Tuesday that inflation “appears to be on a sustainable path” but indicated that challenges still persist, adding that monetary “policy is not on a preset course.”

Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, Kugler described recent inflation readings as encouraging. Personal consumption expenditures rose 2.3% over the past year, and core PCE—the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge—increased 2.8%.

“I am encouraged that inflation expectations appear to remain well anchored,” she said.

“I viewed the elevated inflation readings as partly stemming from seasonal and one-off factors not fully accounted for in the data,” she added.

Continue Reading at Finance.Yahoo.com…

from Bloomberg Television

by Zsombor Peter
Voice of America

BANGKOK —

Laos is straining under soaring inflation rates made worse by the stress of massive loans owed mostly to China for a series of megaprojects that have yet to pay off.

The tiny landlocked nation of nearly 8 million has already deferred some payments. But economists and analysts say Beijing may start asking for a stake in Laotian land, resources and infrastructure as compensation, which could expand China’s influence in the neighboring country.

Rising prices

Laos’ inflation rate jumped from the low single digits to 23% in 2022 and another 31% last year, the highest in all of Asia, according to the Asian Development Bank, or ADB. The regional development bank expects inflation to stay above 20% through 2025.

Continue Reading at VOANews.com…

from Real Vision

Two tax credits that take effect in January 2025 incentivize the generation of electricity from any technology with zero emissions. Simplifications to the federal interpretation of these tax credits could facilitate a smoother rollout.

by Aaron Bergman
Resources.org

The technology-neutral tax credits for electricity generation and energy storage (sections 45Y and 48E of the US tax code) have the potential to be the most impactful elements of the Inflation Reduction Act for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These tax credits replace a menagerie of tax credits for specific technologies (e.g., wind turbines and solar panels) with one seemingly simple qualification: whether the technology has zero emissions. Moreover, instead of having ever-changing expiration dates, these tax credits will remain available to investors until the emissions from the power sector are reduced by a set amount. Assuming the credits are durable against changes in the makeup of Congress, this condition provides invaluable certainty for investors and project developers and avoids the boom-and-bust cycle that sometimes was seen with the prior regime of tax credits.

However, things are never as simple as one might like. In a series of earlier issue briefs, I discussed some of the challenges facing the US Department of the Treasury in the implementation of these tax credits.

Continue Reading at Resources.org…

from CNBC Television

Governor Christopher Waller says he still supports a December interest rate cut barring a surprise in the economic data

by ColSmith
FT

A top Federal Reserve official has warned the US central bank’s progress on curbing inflation “may be stalling”, even as he threw his support behind a cut in interest rates later this month.

Christopher Waller, a Fed governor who sits on the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, on Monday said he backed the central bank lowering rates at its December 17-18 meeting. He said still-elevated borrowing costs were curbing demand across the world’s biggest economy, contributing to easing price pressures.

Still, Waller noted that “if the data we receive between today and the next meeting surprise in a way that suggests our forecasts of slowing inflation and a moderating but still-solid economy are wrong, then I will be supportive of holding the policy rate [unchanged in December]”.

Continue Reading at FT.com…

from Anthony Brian Logan