Asian markets were mixed Monday after data showed a slight uptick in US inflation but Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell said the reading was “in line with expectations”.
from France24
Traders were also cheered by a big jump in Chinese factory activity that fuelled hopes that the world’s number two economy may have bottomed out.
The advances came after the Dow and S&P 500 ended at records Thursday, with the latter chalking up its best first quarter since 2019.
Long-awaited figures on the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index — the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation — showed a small on-year rise in March compared with February, though the core reading eased slightly.
Powell said the report “is pretty much in line with our expectations” and decision-makers were on track to hit their long-term inflation target of two percent.
Followers of the Austrian school of economics know that the term inflation refers to increasing the quantity of money or money substitutes. The result being a rise in the price of goods and services or a fall in the value of money. But, in the modern era, this rise in prices is called inflation and as Ludwig von Mises wrote, “This semantic innovation is by no means harmless.” The semantic change has people looking everywhere but where they should to blame for higher prices.
Biggest Drunken Sailors of all. Average interest rate on the Treasury debt spiked but is still only half of what it was in 2001.
When inflation picked back up in January 2024, many commentators described it as more noise than signal. The latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) casts doubt on that view.
During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said that he thinks “we’re going to have higher inflation than most people believe, and much of that is going to help those people who are worried. Wage inflation is continuing. Food inflation has moderated in the last six to 12 months.” But we failed to account for how bad it was in late 2022 and early 2023.
Investors around the world need to expect massive market distortions to worsen as inflation accelerates.
March 26 (Reuters) – Gold prices climbed on Tuesday, as expectations of interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve firmed, while investors waited for data due later in the week for underlying inflation trends that will help gauge the timing of these cuts.
In January, Argentine President Javier Milei went to Davos, Switzerland, to lecture the rich and powerful about the miracles of capitalism. During his speech at the World Economic Forum, Milei explained to his audience that entrepreneurs are heroes, socialism leads to corruption, and private property is the key to prosperity.
Dollar Tree is raising prices on several of its items — again!