Hot Wage Growth Bedevils Wishlist for ECB Rate Cuts by Wolf Richter • Jun 17, 2024 • 41 Comments Wages jumped by 5.3% in the Euro Area, matching the prior record. The ECB pointed at wage growth as a risk to its inflation outlook.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in Canada, May 2024: Prices Drop Further, -14.4% from Feb 2022 Peak, -2.4% YoY, back to Sep 2021. Spring Rally Dud by Wolf Richter • Jun 17, 2024 • 29 Comments Sales drop further, new listings & inventory rise. Prices: Toronto -16% from peak. Vancouver flat for 9 months, -2.5% from peak. Calgary & Quebec hit new highs.
Junta of Mega-Cap Stocks Rules. Rest of the Market? Russell 2000 Hits Jan 2021 Level, S&P 500 Equal Weight Hits Jan 2022 by Wolf Richter • Jun 15, 2024 • 132 Comments A market hooked on a handful of mega-cap stocks is a precarious place to be.
Rate-Cut Mania’s 20.7% Spike in French Stock Market Comes Home to Roost by Wolf Richter • Jun 14, 2024 • 54 Comments When stuff gets inflated like this, no one should be surprised when it gets deflated.
Fed Liabilities under QT Drop $1.71 Trillion, to $7.22 Trillion: Reserves, ON RRPs, Currency, TGA, Foreign Official RRPs by Wolf Richter • Jun 13, 2024 • 90 Comments The liquidity drain of Quantitative Tightening has come entirely from ON RRPs. Reserves have lots of liquidity left to drain.
Beneath the Skin of CPI Inflation: A Stunning Outlier Services CPI Drove Down Everything Else by Wolf Richter • Jun 12, 2024 • 131 Comments Services are big, and that one-month outlier was massive, and it drove down Core CPI and overall CPI.
Fed Sees Only 1 Rate Cut in 2024, Holds Rates at 5.50% Top of Range, QT Continues at Slower Pace as Announced in May by Wolf Richter • Jun 12, 2024 • 126 Comments Higher for longer becomes formalized one meeting at a time, as projections for “longer-run” federal funds rate keep getting raised.
Fitch Doesn’t See Bottom of Office CRE Mess, Sees CMBS Delinquency Rates Spike Way Past Financial Crisis Peak in 2025 by Wolf Richter • Jun 11, 2024 • 83 Comments A big driver is the “secular decline in the office market” that even slashed interest rates would not end.
Used Car Wholesale Prices Continue Plunge, Gave up 59% of Pandemic Spike. But still up 35% from Jan 2020: EVs +72%, ICE Vehicles +34% by Wolf Richter • Jun 10, 2024 • 92 Comments Compact trucks +70% since Jan 2020; full-size pickups +39%, SUVs +30%, compact cars +20%. Auto insurance +44% since Jan 2022.
The Desire to Be “Your Own Boss” in America by Wolf Richter • Jun 9, 2024 • 124 Comments “You can’t always get what you want… but if you try sometimes, well, you might find, you get what you need…”: The Rolling Stones