Month: March 2024

Note: I will be travelling in Asia until April 24. Limited equipment and different time zones will limit the frequency and depth of my postings.

I arrived in Hong Kong yesterday. This is what I got when browsing for the official BLS inflation data:

Access Denied

You don’t have permission to access “http://www.bls.gov/” on this server.

February CPI: FOMC Still Searching for Confidence

The February consumer price data came in a touch stronger than expected. The headline CPI increased 0.4% in the month, led by higher gasoline prices (+3.8%). Excluding food and energy prices, core inflation also registered 0.4%. However, the unrounded 0.36% bump in core CPI was not too far off our forecast for a 0.30% gain.

Furthermore, core price growth was flattered by bigger than expected increases in volatile components such as used autos and airfares. Housing inflation cooled as owners’ equivalent rent increased 0.4%, a step down from the eye-catching 0.6% jump in January.

In our view, the details of today’s CPI report generally were encouraging. We expect core goods deflation to return in the coming months amid improved supply chains and less supportive seasonal factors. The much-anticipated slowdown in primary shelter inflation is ongoing. A cooling jobs market has brought about slower labor cost growth, and the widespread easing in this month’s “super core” suggests services inflation may not be as sticky as some feared following last month’s CPI report

That said, we doubt today’s report fills the FOMC with the confidence it needs to begin cutting rates. The core CPI has risen at 4.2% annualized rate over the past three months, which is a bit higher than the 3.8% increase in core prices over the past 12 months. We expect disinflation progress to resume in the coming months for the reasons listed above, but we think the FOMC will need to see it to believe it.

The first rate cut from the FOMC looks increasingly likely to occur this summer.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor and Wells Fargo Economics

Consumer prices advanced 0.4% in February, in line with consensus expectations. The overall energy index, which accounts for a little under 7% of the CPI, increased 2.3% in February. As expected, the headline CPI was lifted by a jump in gasoline prices (+3.8%). Compared to one year ago, gasoline prices are still down 3.9%. Energy services rose a smaller 0.8%, led by utility gas service (+2.3%). Food inflation was more benign in February, with prices unchanged in the month. Grocery store prices were flat while prices at restaurants and bars increased 0.1%—the smallest monthly increase in three years. Over the past year, food inflation has cooled significantly and is now back in line with pre-pandemic norms.

Excluding food and energy, the gain in CPI was a touch stronger than expected. The core index advanced 0.36%, a bit above the Bloomberg consensus and our own expectation for a 0.30% gain. The somewhat firmer reading stemmed from core goods, which rose for the first time in eight months (+0.1%). (…) Contributing to the rise was a small rebound in prices for used vehicles, apparel and education and communication goods, which offset declines in new vehicles, motor vehicle equipment, household and recreational goods. (…)

Core services, on the other hand, cooled largely as expected. A 0.7% jump in core services in January drove inflation’s unexpected pop to start the year. In February, core services prices advanced “just” 0.5% (0.46% before rounding). After making waves in January, owners’ equivalent rent growth eased in February (+0.4%). With rent of primary residences picking up in February (+0.5%), last month’s eye-catching gap between the two largest components of the CPI collapsed.

Through the recent monthly volatility, the trend in housing inflation remains downward. Both the year-over-year rate of OER and rent of primary residences registered the smallest increases since the summer of 2022, and a further slide appears in store with private-sector measures of rent growth having largely returned to their pre-pandemic rates.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Zillow Inc. and Wells Fargo Economics

Excluding primary shelter, core services also advanced at a less concerning rate in February. The CPI version of the “super core”, watched by Fed officials to better gauge services inflation given the long lag in shelter inflation, advanced 0.4% after a 0.9% gain in January. The more moderate reading was helped along by a partial reversal of last month’s jump in medical and personal care services, as well as smaller monthly gains in lodging away from home, motor vehicle insurance and maintenance services. The broad cooling in the CPI “super core” in February suggests services inflation is not as sticky as initially feared following January’s sharp upside surprise.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor and Wells Fargo Economics

On a year-ago basis, consumer prices are up 3.2%, a more palatable increase than the 6.0% increase registered this time last year but little different from the past few months. The recent pace of core inflation, having registered a 4.2% annualized rate over the past three months, also points to some near-term stalling in inflation’s descent.

However, we expect the lack of recent progress to be temporary. Price pressures across the economy continue to broadly abate. Labor costs are cooling as the jobs market softens. Consumers, while still spending, are not the price-takers they were a year or two ago as revenge spending dissipates and delinquencies creep higher. The supply chain kinks that helped drive core goods inflation to 47-year high largely have unwound, making it easier for businesses to secure product. In a separate report this morning, the February NFIB Small Business Optimism Index showed the smallest share of businesses raising prices in three years.

While a downward trend in inflation remains in place in our view, the slow progress seen over the past few months is likely to keep the Fed searching for a bit more confidence that inflation is on a sustained path back to its 2% target. The first rate cut from the FOMC looks increasingly likely to occur this summer.

Goldman Sachs keeps analyzing even the smallest items but its 6-m change chart does not look great, does it?

February core CPI rose 0.36%, 6bp above consensus expectations, and the year-on-year rate fell one tenth to 3.8%.

The composition was disinflationary however, with a sharp normalization in non-housing services inflation (+0.47% vs. +0.85% in January and +0.33% average in Q4) and a return to the Q4 trend for the owners’ equivalent rent category (+0.44%).

These inflections support our view that last month’s report received a one-time boost from the January effect and from sample-related volatility in OER. Within non-housing services, February inflation slowed in labor-reliant categories including medical services (-0.1% vs. +0.7% in February), car insurance (+0.9% vs. +1.4%), car repair (+0.4% vs. +0.8%), and personal care services (+0.3% vs. +0.7%), though daycare prices remained strong (+0.9% vs. +0.7%). Food away from home—which flows into the core PCE but is not in core CPI—was also soft (+0.1% vs. +0.5%).

The large and persistent owners’ equivalent rent category (OER) retraced its January spike, though the rent category was slightly above our expectations (+0.46% vs. GS +0.42% and prior +0.36%). Used car prices surprisingly rose 0.5%, and we expect a return to declines in the spring given the continued rebound in auto inventories and decline in auction prices. Airfares (+3.6%), apparel (+0.6%), and tobacco (+0.8%) prices also rose. Communications prices increased sharply (+0.5%) for the second straight month and will boost the PCE measure. Headline CPI rose 0.44%, as energy prices rose 2.3% and food prices were unchanged.

“Deflationary” as Goldman claims? “Temporary lack of progress” per Wells Fargo?

The Cleveland Fed’s Median CPI printed +0.4% in February after +0.5% in January and +0.3% in December. Last 3 months: +4.9% a.r. vs +4.5% in the previous 3 months. The 16% trimmed-mean CPI: +4.5% a.r. in the last 3 months vs +3.6% in the previous 3 months.

Meanwhile, CPI-Services is no longer trending towards the pre-pandemic growth rates. Maybe only “temporary”.

Much depends on wages. Through January, the Atlanta Fed`s composition adjusted wage tracker shows a stalling in the wage growth trends:

Ed Yardeni’s views is dominant in this market:

However, excluding shelter (which is a lagging component of the CPI and a flawed measure of current market rents), the headline and core CPI inflation rates are only 1.8% and 2.2% y/y.

Ed has been mostly right so far this cycle but his “lagging and flawed measure of current market rents” is debatable. Zillow’s is arguably the best measure of market rent. CPI-Rent growth MoM has now converged.

NFIB Small Business Optimism Index Dips in February Inflation Continues to Hold Down Small Business Confidence

NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index fell to the lowest level since May 2023 during February. Firms reported seeing improvements in terms of labor availability, while a lower share of firms raised selling prices during the month. Expectations for real sales and better credit conditions also notched improvements during the month. On balance, however, most other components slipped, notably hiring and capex plans. What’s more, the share of small businesses reporting inflation as the single most important operational problem rose during the month, overtaking labor quality at the top of the list.

Source: NFIB and Wells Fargo Economics

• The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell to 89.4 in February. Although confidence has shown signs of improvement at various times, the headline index has mostly bounced around at a level well below the long-term historical average over the past two years.

• The lack of meaningful improvement largely reflects ongoing challenges dealing with higher costs for materials, labor and financing. The share of small businesses reporting inflation as the single most important operational problem continues to be elevated and turned up further in February. Although inflation appears to be subsiding on trend, small businesses still appear to be having difficulties balancing the sharp rise in prices over past several years with slowing sales and uncertain future demand.

• Expectations for real sales notched an improvement during the month, however the subindex is still very depressed relative to recent periods of economic expansion. Lower earnings expectations coincides with a generally dim outlook for the economy. The share of firms expecting the economy to improve over the next six months, which has trended slightly higher over the past year, edged lower in February and is still close to its recent low point.
• Small firms have seen some improvements recently. For example, labor availability for small firms looks to be getting better. During February, the share of businesses reporting labor quality as a top problem fell to the lowest share since April 2020. Difficult to fill job openings also declined.
• Labor cost pressures appear to be easing as a result. The share of firms raising compensation, both currently and expecting to in the near future, both dipped during the month.
• On the other hand, hiring intentions for small firms sunk to a low not seen since May 2020 during the throes of the pandemic. The drop suggests the labor market may start to lose momentum over the coming months.
• The share of firms which are currently raising prices continues to decline and is now at the lowest reading since January 2021. Encouragingly, the share expecting to raise prices, which spurted higher over the past several months, pulled back slightly during February.

Source: NFIB and Wells Fargo Economics

Source: NFIB and Wells Fargo Economics

Source: NFIB and Wells Fargo Economics

SENTIMENT WATCH

The company [NVDA] will be hosting its AI conference in San Jose at the beginning of next week:

“Come connect with a dream team of industry luminaries, developers, researchers, and business strategists helping shape what’s next in AI and accelerated computing. From the highly anticipated keynote by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to over 900 inspiring sessions, 300+ exhibits, 20+ technical workshops covering generative AI and more…” It’s hard to imagine being short tech stocks ahead of this AI happening.

Helping to drive the S&P 500 to a new record high today was Oracle, which soared after reporting better than expected results (chart). Microsoft rents GPUs from Oracle to run the AI functions of its Bing search engine. Founder Larry Ellison said, “We’re building an AI data center in the United States where you could park eight Boeing 747 nose-to-tail in that one data center.” (Ed Yardeni)

Note: I will be travelling in Asia until April 24. Limited equipment and different time zones will limit the frequency and depth of my postings.

February Employment: The Devil Is in the Details

Nonfarm payroll growth beat expectations in February, growing by 275K compared to a consensus forecast for a 200K gain. However, downward revisions to job growth in the prior two months lowered past employment gains by 167K, more than offsetting the upside surprise in February.

Encouragingly, the breadth of job growth across industries remained solid in the month. The employment diffusion index, a measure of job growth breadth, posted its second highest reading in the past 13 months. Payroll gains were lead by health care (+67K), government (+52K), leisure and hospitality (+58K) and construction (+23K).

Average hourly earnings (AHE) posted a benign 0.1% increase in the month, a notable deceleration from the downwardly-revised 0.5% reading in January. That said, annualized AHE growth remains about one percentage point faster than the average pace that prevailed in 2018-2019.

The separate household survey offered additional evidence that the headline beat on nonfarm payrolls masks underlying softening in the labor market. Household measures of employment are more volatile on a month-to-month basis than nonfarm payrolls, but the 184K decline in employment and 343K increase in unemployment helped push the unemployment rate up to 3.9%, the highest reading since January 2022.

Solid labor supply growth in 2023 was instrumental in reducing upward pressure on wage growth without a material weakening in job growth. However, the upward trend in labor force participation through much of last year has showed signs of flattening out in recent months. In February, the labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5%, unchanged from both January 2024 and February 2023.

While hiring has remained robust to the start the year, we continue to see a moderation ahead. Underneath the still decent pace of payroll growth are cautionary signs. Demand for workers around the margin continues to weaken with temporary help services falling for a 23^rd consecutive month.

Average weekly hours rebounded after January’s odd plunge but remain below the 2019 average in a sign businesses are using workers less intensely. The drop in household employment was entirely accounted for by a drop in full time employment, continuing the trend of part-time employment comfortably outpacing full-time employment growth over the past year.

Furthermore, the ranks of permanent job losers moved up again—a signal it is taking longer for laid off workers to find reemployment.

These downbeat elements of today’s report come amid other signs of jobs market softening, such as small business hiring plans falling back to the lowest levels since 2016 and a rising number of layoff announcements according to the Challenger data. We expect to see payroll growth downshift in the months ahead as a result, which is likely to put further downward pressure on wages and weigh on household income and spending.

The upshot is that these signs point to a further moderation in inflation as 2024 progresses. (…) there should be enough progress in the months ahead that the FOMC feels comfortable beginning the process of cutting the fed funds rate at some point in the May-July window.

Note, however, how employment growth has picked up since last October:

_{Source: U.S. Department of Labor and Wells Fargo Economics}

But February data and the revisions to prior-month numbers make job growth running at a slower rate than prior data showed. This is particularly true for service-providing jobs which rose 256k, or 93% of all jobs growth. The last 3 months averaged 239k, still faster than the previous 6 months average of 182k, but much slower than the initial 312k for December-January.

The unemployment rate in service occupations declined from 5.2% to 5.1%.

Focusing on the private sector, February came at +223k vs the 3-m average of 205k and the 6-m and 12-m averages of 177k. There are 2 ways to look at this next chart: the dash line shows stability over the past 12 months, but the arrows show a V-shape trend that could become annoying to certain people.

Declining participation means fewer supply:

Source: U.S. Department of Labor and Wells Fargo Economics

Aggregate weekly payrolls are up 5.3% YoY in February, up from 4.8% in January, suggesting continued strong consumer spending and retail sales ahead.

KKR:

What does this mean for markets? We still think that the path of least resistance in equity and credit markets is higher. As we have been signaling, the technical backdrop for stocks and credit is as favorable as we have seen in decades. Key to our thinking is that buybacks are surging and could reach $1 trillion in the SPX this year, compared to $500 billion in 2020.

At the same time, there is no issuance of High Yield, Leverage Loans, and IPOs. In fact, net issuance is at its lowest level since April 2009.

On the economic front, the big news is that the Fed is not going to be tightening. Frankly, given the technical backdrop, we don’t need the Fed to ease to have stronger global capital markets. In terms of key themes, we remain very constructive on productivity investments, especially as it relates to automation. We also still favor the intersection of surging data demand with the backdrop of limited power supply and energy transmission. Finally, we are bullish on the ‘security of everything’, including energy, data, transportation, cyber, and water/food.

That said, KKR adds a caveat:

Interestingly, the unemployment rate is now just 10 basis points below the four percent level that would trigger the so-called ‘Sahm rule,’ which signals nearby recession risk when the unemployment rate rises 50 basis points on a sustained basis vs. recent lows (3.5% in the case of this cycle). We remain skeptical of a hard landing narrative, though we do acknowledge the potential for a mild technical recession at some point in coming quarters.

Labor’s “leverage ratio”:

Data: Analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics by Upjohn Institute; Chart: Axios Visuals

This “labor leverage ratio” is a measure developed by economist Aaron Sojourner, a senior researcher at Upjohn Institute. He uses the JOLTS data from the Labor Department that tracks job turnover — and separates “quits” from “discharges,” or firings and layoffs.

• When more workers are quitting than getting let go, it’s a sign of strong employee bargaining power. Workers feel confident that they have better options (or have already found one).
• When more workers are let go than quit voluntarily — that’s no bueno, a sign that companies are cutting staff and workers aren’t seeing much opportunity. As you can see from the chart above, the number falls during recessions.

The leverage ratio surged to record levels during the Great Resignation — when quit rates were super high.

• Worker leverage has come down from those heady days, but it’s still higher than at any time prior to the pandemic.
• The still-elevated labor leverage helps explain the record levels of strikes.

Labor leverage is still very high in the industries that are doing the most hiring — accommodation and food services (4.9 quits per 1 firing), leisure and hospitality (3.85 to 1), health care (3.79 to 1), and retail (3.48 to 1).

Will the Moderation in Wage Growth Continue?

In this post, we [NY Fed] use our own measure of wage growth persistence – called Trend Wage Inflation (TWIn in short) – to look at these questions. Our main finding is that, after a rapid decline from 7 percent at its peak in late 2021 to around 5 percent in early 2023, TWin has changed little in recent months, indicating that the moderation in nominal wage growth may have stalled. We also show that our measure of trend wage inflation and labor market tightness comove very closely. Hence, the recent behavior of TWIn is consistent with a still-tight labor market. (…)

Importantly, we estimate the persistence of unobserved monthly wage growth from year-over-year wage changes. Our measure therefore tends to lead year-over-year wage changes, which are influenced by wages in the past twelve months by construction. This produces a timely measure of wage growth, useful to detect turning points in real time. 

The chart below shows our estimated trend (solid blue line) together with the realized twelve-month wage growth defined as described above (black line). The shaded area around the trend is a 68 percent confidence band that captures the uncertainty associated with the estimates. We highlight two main takeaways.

Wage Growth as Measured by TWIn Peaked in Late 2021, Then Moderated

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics; authors’ estimates. 

(…) The moderation in TWIn flattened out mid-2023 and has remained stagnant since. However, the shaded areas still illustrate considerable uncertainty. The recent slowdown estimated by our model indicates it cannot be ruled out that wage growth will continue to be markedly higher in the near-term than it was before the pandemic. (…)

Our filtering approach to time aggregation delivers a measure of wage inflation that is timelier than alternatives. We show this in the chart below, which compares the recent evolution of our measure (blue), the employment cost index (red), and the Atlanta Fed Wage Growth Tracker (gold). Our measure of Trend Wage Inflation always leads alternative measures of wage growth: importantly, it is better aligned to labor market tightness. We illustrate this point in the chart where the grey line denotes labor market tightness, defined as job openings divided by the labor force.

TWIn and Labor Market Tightness Tend to Move in Tandem

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics; authors’ estimates.

Our measure of Trend Wage Inflation therefore represents an additional signal on the current state of the labor market. When labor market conditions are tight – that is, when there are a lot of vacant jobs relative to job seekers – wage growth is high, as firms need to post higher wages to attract and retain workers. (…)

What are the implications of persistent nominal wage growth? First and foremost, TWIn adds to other indicators pointing to a still-tight labor market. Many labor market indicators, such as job vacancies or the rate at which unemployed workers find jobs, are still at or above their pre-pandemic level.

In addition, persistently elevated nominal wage growth may have repercussions for price inflation, although it may also be the result of wages in nominal terms catching up with previously high price inflation. Our approach offers a way to look under the hood of short-run, noisy fluctuations in wage growth. While considerable uncertainty remains, our estimates point to persistent wage growth that is still above its pre-pandemic levels.

BTW:

Nonfarm productivity was unrevised in Q4 at +3.2% (qoq ar) and the year-over-year rate was revised down 0.1pp to +2.6%. Since 2019Q4, labor productivity has grown at an annualized rate of 1.6%, roughly in line with the pre-pandemic trend.

Unit labor costs—compensation divided by output—were revised down by 0.1pp in Q4 to +0.4% (qoq ar), and the year-over-year rate was revised up by 0.1pp to +2.4%.

Compensation per hour was unrevised at +3.7% in Q4 (qoq ar) but the year-on-year rate was revised up by 0.1pp to +5.1%. Our wage tracker now stands at 4.7% year-over-year in Q4 and 4.5% in Q3. (Goldman Sachs)

Canada: Economy adds 41,000 jobs in February, but employment gains lag population growth

Statistics Canada also reported on Friday that the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.8 per cent.

Job gains, which were driven by full-time employment, were spread across several industries in the services-producing sector, with the strongest growth in accommodation and food services.

The February increase comes after similar stronger-than-expected job gains in January. (…)

Over the past year, Canada’s population grew by 1,031,200 people while employment rose by 368,000 jobs. (…)

The federal agency noted Friday that the employment rate – which represents the proportion of Canadians aged 15 years and older who are employed – fell for a fifth consecutive month in February.

That’s the longest period of consecutive decreases since the six-month period ending in April, 2009. (…)

Meanwhile, wages continue to grow rapidly in Canada. Average hourly wages were up 5 per cent from a year ago, down from a rate of 5.3 per cent in January. (…)

NBF shows that the Canadian labor market is rather weak:

Particularly private employment:

China’s Consumer Prices Rise for First Time Since August

The consumer price index increased 0.7% in February from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday, rebounding from the biggest drop since 2009 in January. The gain was higher than analysts’ estimates of a 0.3% gain in a Bloomberg survey.

Producer prices fell 2.7%, continuing the longest string of declines since 2016.

A boom in travel during the holidays drove most of the growth in consumer prices, according to Dong Lijuan, chief statistician at the NBS. The decline in producer prices is in part due to slower industrial activities during the holiday period, Dong said.

Consumer prices on a core basis, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, rose 1.2% from the prior year, the government data showed. That’s the highest in more than two years and compares with a just 0.4% gain in January.

EARNINGS WATCH

From LSEG/IBES:

494 companies in the S&P 500 Index have reported earnings for Q4 2023. Of these companies, 76.3 reported earnings above analyst expectations and 18.6% reported earnings below analyst expectations. In a typical quarter (since 1994), 67% of companies beat estimates and 20% miss estimates. Over the past four quarters, 76% of companies beat the estimates and 19% missed estimates.

In aggregate, companies are reporting earnings that are 6.3% above estimates, which compares to a long-term (since 1994) average surprise factor of 4.2% and the average surprise factor over the prior four quarters of 5.7%.

Of these companies, 63.4% reported revenue above analyst expectations and 36.6% reported revenue below analyst expectations. In a typical quarter (since 2002), 62% of companies beat estimates and 38% miss estimates. Over the past four quarters, 66% of companies beat the estimates and 34% missed estimates.

In aggregate, companies are reporting revenues that are 1.3% above estimates, which compares to a long-term (since 2002) average surprise factor of 1.3% and the average surprise factor over the prior four quarters of 1.6%.

The estimated earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 for 23Q4 is 10.0%. If the energy sector is excluded, the growth
rate improves to 13.6%.

The estimated revenue growth rate for the S&P 500 for 23Q4 is 3.7%. If the energy sector is excluded, the growth rate improves to 5.1%.

The estimated earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 for 24Q1 is 5.3%. If the energy sector is excluded, the growth rate improves to 8.3%.

Trailing earnings are now $222.97. Full year 2024: $243.36e. Full year 2025: $276.00

There were only 2 pre-announcements last week, 1 positive and 1 in-line.

FYI:

Ed Yardeni: https://youtu.be/S4OjgWd-rxU?si=hwmuCXjSvPeaA1La

Earnings Yield vs Cash Rate: This one is interesting because in its simplicity is relative efficacy. Buy when it’s high, reduce exposure when it’s low/negative. And it makes intuitive sense (higher cash rates = higher opportunity cost to holding risky equities, also higher cash rates = tighter monetary policy; headwind to economy, macro downside risks). Interesting then to note that all 3 measures of the earnings yield are now lower than the 3-month T-Bill rate. (Callum Thomas)

Source: 16 Different Stockmarket Valuation Indicators