The Chilling Thing Disney’s “Black Widow” Said about the Future of Movie Theater Chains by Wolf Richter • Jul 12, 2021 • 180 Comments Opening weekend ticket sales in 98th place, but streaming revenues hit it out of the ballpark.
THE WOLF STREET REPORT: This “Temporary” Inflation Is Turning into an Inflation Spiral by Wolf Richter • Jul 11, 2021 • 301 Comments Get Used to Higher Inflation. My Thoughts on the Biggest Mess I’ve Seen in Decades.
Housing Market Splits: San Francisco House Prices do Holy-Moly Spike, Condo Prices Flat for 3 Years by Wolf Richter • Jul 10, 2021 • 169 Comments Amid record surge in luxury house sales.
Container Freight Rates Spike to New Extremes, up 500% for Asia-US, Asia-EU since Early 2020. Worse Still Ahead by Wolf Richter • Jul 9, 2021 • 212 Comments “Turns out it’s a heck of a lot easier to create demand than it is to bring supply up to snuff”: Jerome Powell
With Stimmies Fading, Consumers Dip into Credit Cards for First Time since 2019, But Only a Little. Everyone’s Relieved by Wolf Richter • Jul 8, 2021 • 155 Comments No one wants consumers to pay off their high-interest credit cards, least of all banks, and consumers had threatened to do just that.
Was This Finally “Peak Insanity” in Used Vehicle Prices? by Wolf Richter • Jul 8, 2021 • 89 Comments All kinds of crazy spikes in used-vehicle wholesale and retail markets topped out, but by only a tad.
Americans See the Raging Mania: “Bad Time to Buy a Home” & “Good Time to Sell a Home” Sentiments Spike to WTF Record by Wolf Richter • Jul 8, 2021 • 175 Comments If these sentiments become reality, it’s going to be a sea change for demand and supply at these crazy prices.
Tapering, Doubts about “Transitory” Inflation, and “Financial Stability Risks” due to “Valuation Pressures in Housing Markets”: Some Folks at the Fed Getting a Little Nervous by Wolf Richter • Jul 7, 2021 • 154 Comments Disruptions “might linger for longer and might have larger or more persistent effects on prices and wages than they currently assumed.”
Buyers’ Strike? Mortgage Applications Drop 8% Below 2019, as Home Buyers Get Second Thoughts about “Raging Mania” by Wolf Richter • Jul 7, 2021 • 129 Comments First effect of MBS taper-talk from the Fed: Mortgage rates flat since late April even as long-term Treasury yields dropped.
Bank of Japan Stops QE, Reserve Bank of Australia Starts Tapering, Bank of Canada & Bank of England Already Tapering, Amid Shock-and-Awe Rate Hikes in Emerging Markets by Wolf Richter • Jul 6, 2021 • 167 Comments The Fed is a laggard, now discussing when and how to taper QE. The ECB is an even bigger laggard, as inflation begins to rage.
