Travelling this week, posting sporadically and with limited time and equipment.
Coronavirus Continues to Weigh on U.S. Consumer Prices
The consumer-price index, which measures what Americans pay for everything from alcohol to lawn mowers, fell 0.1% in May after declining a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in April, the Labor Department said Wednesday.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices fell 0.1%, compared with a 0.4% decline in April. (…) Consumer inflation by that measure rose 1.2% from the prior year, the smallest advance since 2011, following 1.4% in April.
The cost of food purchased for preparing at home rose 1.0% in May, following a 2.6% increase in the prior month. (…)
China’s Factory-Gate Deflation Accelerates Industrial prices fell at their fastest pace in more than four years as the coronavirus pandemic crushed global dem![Auto]()
and for commodities.
(…) The country’s producer-price index dropped 3.7% in May from a year earlier, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. May’s fall was bigger than April’s 3.1% decline and slightly sharper than economists had expected. (…)
Meanwhile, China’s consumer inflation dropped to a 14-month low in May because of easing food inflation. The consumer-price index rose 2.4% from a year earlier, slowing from April’s 3.3% growth and a tad lower than economists had expected.
Food prices rose 10.6% last month, retreating from a 14.8% increase in April, while nonfood prices increased 0.4%, the same as in April. Of the nonfood items, fuel costs dropped 22% in May compared with April’s 20.5% decrease.
Pork-price inflation in China continued to moderate from the effects of swine fever in May. Pork prices climbed 81.7%, slowing from a 96.9% increase in April. Still, pork prices, boosted the headline index by nearly 2 percentage points. (…)
Hassett Sees Another Stimulus Bill From Congress Before August Recess
Shoppers Surprise Retailers by Returning to Stores Executives at Macy’s and Kohl’s had anticipated steeper sales declines than they have so far seen during the coronavirus pandemic, as both companies continue to reopen locations across the country.
Macy’s Inc. M -7.12% Chief Executive Jeff Gennette said sales at reopened stores are down by about half compared with before the pandemic, which is better than the 85% decline the company had predicted. At Kohl’s Corp., KSS -6.97% stores are doing about three-quarters of their pre-pandemic sales volume, up from about two-thirds in late May, Chief Executive Michelle Gass said.
Starbucks sees up to $2.2 billion hit to third-quarter operating income from COVID-19
Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) said on Wednesday it expected current-quarter operating income to plunge by up to $2.2 billion, with sales declines for the rest of the year even as stores reopen following easing of coronavirus lockdowns.
The world’s largest coffee chain said it would permanently close about 400 stores in the Americas over the next 18 months and would cut the number of planned new store openings by half, to about 300 this fiscal year.
VALUATIONS
The Rule of 20 P/E is now 21.4 on trailing EPS of $158.71 and inflation of 1.24%.
The S&P 500 is still tracking the 2009 recovery analog. (Fidelity Investments)
VIRUS UPDATE
- Covid Pandemic Is Far From Over, Anthony Fauci Warns
- Re-opening, however, has come at different stages of the COVID-19 trajectory in different parts of the country. According to rt.live, the estimated reproduction number (R) is above 1 in 13 states. Rising cases in Arizona, Florida and Texas are a particular worry. And there remains a higher risk in the US than almost any other advanced economy that rising infections could either prompt a return to lockdown or cap the economic recovery due to fears about the virus. (Fathom Consulting)
Coronavirus hospitalizations rise sharply in several states The spikes generally began in the past couple of weeks — after Memorial Day — and are trending higher in most of the affected states.
(…) In Texas, North and South Carolina, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Arizona, there are an increasing number of patients under supervised care since the holiday weekend because of coronavirus infections. The spikes generally began in the past couple weeks and in most states are trending higher.
Data from states that are reporting some of their highest seven-day averages of new cases is disproving the notion that the country is seeing such a spike in cases solely because of the continued increase in testing, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.
Many of these states that have experienced an increase in cases have also had an increase in hospitalizations, with a handful of states also nearing bed capacity. (…)
Texas has reported 75,616 cases since the pandemic began, and in 10 of the past 15 days, the state’s seven-day average of new cases has increased.
As of Tuesday, it has reported two consecutive days of record-breaking coronavirus hospitalizations. The state has seen a 36 percent increase in new cases since Memorial Day, with a record 2,056 current hospitalizations as of early Tuesday afternoon. It was up from a high of 1,935 hospitalizations on Monday.
Texas was one of the first states to relax their stay-at-home order. Businesses started to open up in early May.(…)
In Arizona, 28,296 cases have been reported as of Tuesday, and in 13 of the past 15 days the state’s seven-day average of new cases has increased. There have been a record number of hospitalizations in the state over the past few days. As of Tuesday, Arizona reported 1,243 current hospitalizations, a 49 percent increase since Memorial Day, when there were 833 hospitalizations.
Arizona has also been struggling with its bed capacity. On Friday, Banner Health, one of the largest health-care systems in the country, confirmed that ICUs in Arizona were nearing capacity. Roughly 50 percent of all those hospitalized are in Banner Health facilities. As of Monday, 76 percent of all ICU beds in Arizona were in use, according to data from the state health department.
Arkansas has reported 10,080 cases, and in 11 of the past 15 days the state’s seven-day average of new cases has increased. It has had an 88 percent increase in hospitalizations since Memorial Day. Arkansas had 173 hospitalizations reported on Tuesday, compared with 92 on May 25.
According to local reports, hospitals statewide remained below capacity on Monday, and none of the new coronavirus cases had been linked to recent protests in the state.
The Carolinas have also seen a rise in hospitalizations, with North Carolina experiencing the second-largest spike in the nation behind Texas. North Carolina’s upward trend began after Memorial Day. On May 26, the state reported 621 hospitalizations but two weeks later, that number has climbed to 774. (…)
Mississippi has reported 18,109 cases since the pandemic begin. On Tuesday, it recorded 671 hospitalizations, a new daily high. It has seen an 17 percent increase in hospitalizations since Memorial Day, with 573 reported on May 25.
In Utah, new covid-19 cases are on the rise and as a result, so are hospitalizations. Utah’s coronavirus task force tweeted that the state has seen a spike in coronavirus cases, and it wasn’t because of testing or a lone outbreak.
Similar to other regions, Utah’s numbers have climbed steadily since Memorial Day, as the seven-day average of new cases has increased 12 of the past 15 days. Over that two-week span, Utah’s current hospitalizations more than doubled, and as of Tuesday afternoon, 230 patients were hospitalized with covid-19. (…)