Worst Monthly Spike of “Core Services” PCE Inflation in 22 Years, and Not Just Housing: Powell’s Gonna Have Another Cow by Wolf Richter • Feb 29, 2024 • 295 Comments Core services inflation dished up bad head fakes last time we had this mess in 1966-1982. Mention of a rate hike crops up in a Fed speech.
ECB Balance Sheet QT: Down €2.0 Trillion from Peak, to €6.83 Trillion. The ECB Shed 48% of its Pandemic QE Assets by Wolf Richter • Feb 28, 2024 • 55 Comments A big milestone for Quantitative Tightening in the euro area.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, Feb 2024 Update: 20-City Index Drops for 2nd Month from Double-Top. Biggest Price Drops from 2022 Peak: San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas, San Diego by Wolf Richter • Feb 27, 2024 • 166 Comments These double-tops are weird. Prices coming off the second top. Only Miami home prices hit new high.
U.S. Electricity Generation by Source in 2023: Natural Gas, Coal, Nuclear, Wind, Hydro, Solar, Geothermal, Biomass, Petroleum by Wolf Richter • Feb 27, 2024 • 219 Comments Power generation dips from record: 16 years of stagnation. And the battery arbitrage.
Prices of New Houses v. Prices of Existing Houses: Why Sales of New Houses Hang in there as Sales of Existing Houses Plunge by Wolf Richter • Feb 26, 2024 • 134 Comments Price Cuts and mortgage-rate buydowns, though costly for homebuilders, make new houses more attractive.
Nvidia, the WTF Chart of the Year. Tesla also Had WTF Charts of the Year before Shares Plunged by Wolf Richter • Feb 24, 2024 • 218 Comments Because these share prices are a state of mind. And when that state of mind changes – see Tesla.
We Have a Boom in Reverse Stock Splits to Keep the Ballooning Imploded Stocks Listed a While Longer: This Stuff is Just Funny by Wolf Richter • Feb 23, 2024 • 60 Comments Meanwhile, massive trading in hundreds of imploded stocks that still haven’t been delisted inflates overall market trading volume.
This Housing Market is Still Frozen by Wolf Richter • Feb 22, 2024 • 173 Comments Median price of existing homes dropped further, high was June 2022, demand collapsed, active listings highest in 4 years, days on market rise.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Index Hits New All-Time High after 34 Years, Thank You Hallelujah Bank of Japan Money Printing by Wolf Richter • Feb 22, 2024 • 79 Comments But if you invested USD three years ago following Buffett’s hype, you lost 5% because the yen crashed, thank you hallelujah BOJ.
The Fed Wants to Drive QT as Far as Possible Without Blowing Stuff Up, and it’s Working on a Plan: FOMC Minutes by Wolf Richter • Feb 22, 2024 • 121 Comments QT-1 blew up the repo market. This time around, the Fed wants to avoid that type of debacle so it wouldn’t have to “prematurely” end QT-2.
