In a week of silly and contradictory headlines, the Federal Reserve takes the top spot. The world’s premiere central bank managed to lower the fed funds rate into increasing inflation while reducing future rate hike expectations. Every month, they appear more political. After a month of reporting on weak consumer sales in high-priced discretionary items, … Read more
The Federal Reserve just completed its final meeting of the year and as expected, cut the fed funds rate by 25bp (.25%) to 4.25% – 4.50%. This completes the last cut of the year with a total of 100bp (1%) of cuts for 2024. The release commented on elevated inflation, expanding economic activity, and an … Read more
Both the CPI and the PPI rose from the prior month (again) as DKI predicted. Yet, the Fed is about to cut rates for the third time this year. Just a reminder that we can make money even from bad policy, so make sure your portfolio is prepared for more inflation. The European Central Bank … Read more
Overview: Today, we got the November Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed an overall increase of 2.7% for the last year and 0.3% for the month (annualizes to 3.7%). That’s above last month’s 2.6% and above the prior month’s 2.4%. It was in-line with expectations. The Core CPI which excludes food and energy was … Read more
The long-awaited moment came late last week when Bitcoin crossed $100k. Being a volatile asset, it’s already crossed that level multiple times in the few days since giving anyone who missed the first crossing ample opportunity to celebrate. Despite being wrong by 100x (10,000%!!!), Peter Schiff @PeterSchiff comes up with a novel excuse for why … Read more
This week presents more evidence that a weak private market economy and inflation are taking an increased toll on the American consumer. Luxury sales are falling with consumers seeking out used and discounted items. While companies like $MSFT, $GOOG, and $AMZN buy more $NVDA chips to power AI datacenters, consumers balk at buying AI-powered electronics … Read more
A while back, we tried to transition to more stock-related “Things” for this piece. Then, we get a week like this one where all the news is macro and inflation. We’re nothing if not flexible so that’s what we have this week. Inflation indexes come in above expectations and above last month. DKI warned the … Read more
Overview: Today, we got the October Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed an overall increase of 2.6% for the last year and 0.2% for the month. That’s above last month’s 2.4% and in-line with expectations. The Core CPI which excludes food and energy was up 3.3% vs last year and up 0.3% from last … Read more
The polls have been inaccurate for the past three US Presidential elections. Knowing that, DKI was watching Bitcoin, the prediction markets, and a few other select stocks and economic markers to see that a Trump landslide was coming long before the network announcers could do so. Could we get a sound money advocate as Federal … Read more
The Federal Reserve cut the fed funds rate by 25bp (.25%). This was expected and the stock market isn’t reacting. Futures markets indicate an expectation for another 25bp cut in December. That also reflects no change from prior expectations. The Powell press conference begins in 15 minutes. Information contained in this report, and in … Read more
