Fed Balance Sheet QT: -$66 Billion in August, -$1.85 Trillion from Peak, to $7.11 Trillion, back to June 2020, Another QT Milestone by Wolf Richter • Sep 5, 2024 • 82 Comments Quantitative Tightening has shed so far 38% of the assets that pandemic QE had added.
Buyers’ Strike Deepened in August Despite Lower Mortgage Rates. Listings Surge, Home Sellers Slowly Drop Prices by Wolf Richter • Sep 5, 2024 • 105 Comments Listing prices, YoY: Miami -11.7%, San Diego -9.1%, Kansas City -8.5%, San Francisco -7.7%, Austin -7.6%. Active listings explode in Tampa, San Diego, Miami, Seattle…
Is the Labor Market “Normalizing?” What Even Is “Normal?” by Wolf Richter • Sep 4, 2024 • 60 Comments Fewer quits and historically low layoffs & discharges mean fewer job openings, and less hiring to fill them. But that’s only part of it.
Bloodletting in Semiconductor Stocks Kicks Off September: Nvidia -11.7% Regular & Late Trading, Market Cap Drops by Half a Tesla by Wolf Richter • Sep 3, 2024 • 155 Comments Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.3%. If it drops another 6.7%, it’ll be back to November 2021.
Construction Spending Squeaks to Record amid Eyepopping Boom in Spending on Factories while Residential Construction Tries to Dig Out of Last Year’s Slump by Wolf Richter • Sep 3, 2024 • 43 Comments Majority of construction spending goes into nonresidential, dominated now by a spending spree on factories.
Why We’ll Replace the Case-Shiller Home Price Index for Our Series, “The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America” by Wolf Richter • Sep 2, 2024 • 99 Comments The series, started in 2017 to document visually the surging home prices amid the Fed’s interest rate repression, will now get bigger and better.
Our Drunken Sailors Are at it Again, Not at All in the Mood for a Slowdown or a Recession by Wolf Richter • Aug 30, 2024 • 161 Comments Inflation-adjusted consumer spending jumped. They splurged on durable goods. And still saved some. In response, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow jumped.
Fed Favored Annual Core PCE Price Index Slightly Up, at 2.6%: Core Services Inflation 3.7%, Durable Goods Deflation -2.5% by Wolf Richter • Aug 30, 2024 • 72 Comments Month-to-month, core services inflation jumped while durable goods deflation deepened, and so core PCE price index hits Fed’s target.
Spiking Interest Payments on the Ballooning US Government Debt v. Tax Receipts, GDP, and Inflation: Q2 Update by Wolf Richter • Aug 29, 2024 • 91 Comments Burden of the national debt: The portion of tax receipts swallowed by interest payments.
Buyers’ Strike Deepens: Pending Home Sales Drop to Record Low Despite Surging Supply & Much Lower Mortgage Rates that Already Price in Massive Rate Cuts by Wolf Richter • Aug 29, 2024 • 131 Comments “A sales recovery did not occur in midsummer”: NAR. Because prices are way too high, doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.
