This piece was originally published on August 16th, 2023. Earlier this week, we got retail sales data indicating the US consumer continues to spend without pause. Today, we got to see the minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting where they wrote: “With inflation still well above the Committee’s longer-run goal and the labor … Read more
This piece originally appeared on August 10, 2023. There’s been a lot of hope and enthusiasm in the press and the stock market for a “soft-landing”. The idea is that the Federal Reserve may be able to start to bring down interest rates at just the right time and avoid a recession. Supporting that point … Read more
This is an excerpt from the DKI July letter: The VIX is an index that measures market expectations for volatility in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days. The index tends to have a skew in it because investors are much more concerned about downwards volatility than upwards volatility. As a result, we’ll typically … Read more
This is an excerpt from the DKI July letter: Over a year ago, the “pivot people” started calling for the Fed to pivot to lower rates. At the time and for the past year, DKI has said that we were nowhere near a pivot and that we expect the Fed to continue raising. Shortly … Read more
This is an excerpt from the DKI July letter: Last month, we wrote this: DKI has been highlighting inconsistent economic data since last November. However, recent news has put that trend on steroids. The ISM Manufacturing Index and the Purchasing Managers’ Index are both showing contraction/recessionary indicators. Demand for goods is weak. Lumber pricing … Read more
