Click here for the PDF: The Weekly Beacon May 24 2024 US

We will be giving some macro economic market updates on a weekly basis. No equity recommendations will be given in this commentary, and we encourage you to contact us if you have questions regarding any observations.

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This weeks issue: FED, FED members, Inflation, Interest rates, Interest servicing, Government debt, Gas prices, Energy, Oil prices, SPR release, Biden energy policy, Emerging markets, India stocks, Mexico ETF, Chinese stock market rebound, P/E ratios of each country, Emerging markets ETF, Inflation in the classroom, Bond market, Balanced fund under-performance, U.S.Treasury performance in 2024.

FED member speaks

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller prepared remarks on inflation, interest rates, and more on Tuesday in front of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Waller gave some color on what the FED is exactly thinking at this juncture, so we wanted to share that in case you missed his statements.

Waller said that the FED’s progress on tamping down price growth (inflation) has resumed after a few months of it increasing. He said that lower inflation will allow the FED to slash rates but that the FED still needs a few months of good data to justify a cut. Waller went on to say that he believes further increases in the policy rate would be unnecessary as the FED sees inflation decelerating moving forward.

Waller said he expects some moderation in economic activity moving forward pointing to the latest retail data that reported sales as flat in April. He also pointed to credit card and auto delinquency rates being above pre-pandemic levels, signaling some household financial stress.

Waller also said he and the FED are also closely watching manufacturing and nonmanufacturing production data.

Waller also took a moment in his statement to recent criticisms of the FED. Many critics have claimed the FED is now too ‘data dependent’. He simply stated that the FED and its members are not overreacting to any one piece of data.

Click here for the PDF: The Weekly Beacon May 24 2024 US