Even in Japan, Inflation Begins to Rage after 23 Years of True Price Stability by Wolf Richter • Sep 20, 2022 • 54 Comments Bank of Japan lets yen go to heck, trade deficit blows out, costs surge for manufacturers, prices surge for consumers.
New Vehicle Inventory Still Near Record Lows, with Twist: Fuel-Efficient Cars Vanish, Full-Size Pickups Pile Up. Ram, Dodge, Jeep Overstocked by Wolf Richter • Sep 20, 2022 • 114 Comments But Kia, Toyota, Honda: nearly nothing on the lot. Where the shortages are, and where ample supply is, by brand and segment.
Housing Bubble Woes: Home Builders Cut Prices, Pile on Incentives, amid Plunging Traffic of Buyers, Spiking Cancellations, Holy-Moly Mortgage Rates by Wolf Richter • Sep 19, 2022 • 133 Comments To prop up sales, 24% of home builders cut prices, others tried mortgage-rate buydowns or other incentives.
THE WOLF STREET REPORT: This Inflation Will Be Tough to Get under Control by Wolf Richter • Sep 18, 2022 • 182 Comments It’s like a dam broke. And now higher interest rates and mortgage rates for much longer, with lower asset prices, as the Everything Bubble gets repriced.
California Housing Market: Dismal Sales, Prices Sag in San Francisco (-20% fr. peak), Silicon Valley, San Diego, Orange County… by Wolf Richter • Sep 16, 2022 • 144 Comments And this was during the summer rally as mortgage rates dropped to 5%, stocks bounced, the Fed “pivoted,” and the Good Times started all over again.
The Fed Stopped Buying MBS Today. by Wolf Richter • Sep 16, 2022 • 235 Comments The purpose of MBS purchases was to repress mortgage rates and inflate home prices. That process has already started to reverse.
Retail Sales Doing Just Fine, Thanks Shoppers. But Sales at Gas Stations Sag on Plunge in Gasoline Prices by Wolf Richter • Sep 15, 2022 • 107 Comments Retail sales without gas stations jumped 0.8% in August from July. Inflation shifted away from goods (retailers) to services.
Gasoline Demand Destruction Accelerates Despite Plunge in Prices: Consumption Drops to August 1997 Level by Wolf Richter • Sep 14, 2022 • 170 Comments Long-term stagnation turns into sharp decline.
To Halt Yen’s Plunge, Japan Gets Ready to Sell Foreign Exchange Reserves Instead of Hiking Interest Rates. Won’t Work for Long. Markets Can Win this Battle by Wolf Richter • Sep 14, 2022 • 102 Comments Rate hikes to keep up with the Fed would work. But the Bank of Japan still digs in its heels. Its balance sheet has shrunk for months though.
The Day Wall Street’s Narrative of “Inflation is Over” Fell Apart: A Sea of Red by Wolf Richter • Sep 13, 2022 • 221 Comments But for yield investors: Short-term Treasury yields near 4%. Six-month CD yields at 3.5%, if you shop around.
