Business Cycles
US CPI inflation for December came in slightly hotter than anticipated. Headline inflation accelerated from 0.1% to 0.3% on a month-over-month basis and rose from 3.1% to 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Both the monthly and yearly changes in headline…
US corporate bonds performed well last year with both investment grade and high-yield spreads narrowing in 2023. Indeed, the 12-month breakeven spreads are relatively low – especially in the case of investment grade. This means that corporates have a…
The best leading indicator for post-pandemic US wage inflation is the ratio of job vacancies to ‘bad’ unemployment (V/U), where bad unemployment refers to ‘job losers not on temporary layoff’. This ratio has already declined from 6.4 to 4.1 and wage…
According to BCA Research’s Emerging Markets Strategy service, the recent improvement in global manufacturing and Asian exports will likely prove to be a mid-cycle amelioration rather than a cyclical recovery. Global trade/manufacturing is the key driver…
The combined US credit impulse and fiscal thrust indicator will likely relapse in 2024, heralding growth weakness. Stalling US sales volume and falling inflation, combined with sticky labor costs, will herald a non-trivial profit margin compression. The recent increase in Asian exports will likely prove to be a mid-cycle improvement rather than a cyclical recovery.
Australian CPI inflation fell from 4.9% y/y to a 22-month low of 4.3% y/y in November – slightly below expectations of 4.4%. Underlying measures of core inflation also indicate that price pressures eased in November. The rate of growth in CPI excluding…
Taiwan’s December trade data corroborates the signal from other Asian exporters (such as South Korea) that global manufacturing activity is experiencing a mini revival. Taiwanese exports surged by 11.8% y/y last month, surprising expectations of a much tamer…
The Atlanta Fed’s US Wage Growth Tracker stalled at 5.2% in December, unchanged from November. Notably, after falling from a peak of 7.1% in June 2022, this indicator has stabilized at still-elevated levels in recent months. This dynamic raises the question…
The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index delivered a slight positive surprise on Tuesday. The index rose 1.3 points to a five-month high of 91.9 in December and beat consensus expectations of 91.0. However, the contents of the report were more mixed. On the…
The Santa Claus rally started in late October lifting the S&P 500 by 15.8%. However, there are signs that the rally is getting tired. Consider the following: The S&P 500 has been trading at around 4,750 since the middle of December. …