Global Economy

A Bunch Of Cool & Colorful Charts

Jan 9, 2025 3 min read

I. US FINANCIAL MARKETS The bull/bear ratios have dropped sharply over the past couple of weeks (chart). From a contrarian perspective that's a bullish development for the US stock market. The US bond yield has been increasing while the ratio of industrial to precious metals commodity prices has been falling since 2022 (chart). This unusual divergence might suggest that bond investors are increasingly concerned about the long-term

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

Loose Fed Lips Sink Stocks

Apr 4, 2024 2 min read paid

We are in the same camp as Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari. On March 6, he said, "If we have a run rate that's very attractive, people have jobs, businesses are doing well, inflation is coming back down, why do anything?" We wrote an op-ed in the March 25 Financial Times titled, "The Fed should resist messing with success." We asked:

Ed Yardeni

What Does Dr Copper Say About The Global Economy?

Dec 29, 2023 2 min read

Copper is often described as the shiny metal with a PhD in economics because it provides useful insights into global economic activity. The price of the red metal has rallied in recent days, and could be on the verge of breaking out of its downtrend during 2022 and 2023 that resulted from the bursting of China's property bubble and the decline in US housing starts (chart). A similar

Ed Yardeni

Improving Outlook for Global Economy

Feb 13, 2023 1 min read paid

While the US economic outlook has been a source of dissention since early last year, few disagreed last summer that both Europe and China would be in recessions by now. Europe was expected to go dark and freeze during the winter months because of a shortage of natural gas resulting from Russia’s attack on Ukraine. China’s recession was expected to result from the government’s zero-Covid lockdowns. Instead,

Ed Yardeni

How's Business In The US & Europe?

Jan 25, 2023 1 min read paid

We predict that global economic growth will improve this year. Until recently that was a contrary view since it was widely expected that the US, Europe, and China would fall into recessions this year. Now there is growing optimism about the outlook for Europe and China. The consensus outlook for the US remains relatively pessimistic.

Ed Yardeni

China's Zero-Covid Policy Is A Disaster

Nov 24, 2022 1 min read

Investors are hoping that the Chinese government will soon ease its zero-Covid policies. The facts on the ground suggest that the latest wave of the pandemic is getting worse in China and that the government is continuing to respond with more lockdowns and other severe restrictions (chart). Japanese brokerage firm Nomura estimates that more than a fifth of the country is under restricted movement. This is weighing on China'

Ed Yardeni

Foreigners Still Piling Into US Dollar & Bonds

Nov 16, 2022 1 min read

The 10-year US Treasury bond yield dropped sharply from 4.25% on October 24 to 3.72% today. Recent CPI and PPI readings suggest that inflation is peaking, though it clearly remains high. Furthermore, Fed officials seem to agree that the federal funds rate needs to be raised closer to 5.00%. Then they intend to keep the federal funds rate at the terminal rate for a prolonged period of

Ed Yardeni

Supply Chain Problems Are Abating

Oct 9, 2022 1 min read paid

Supply-chain bottlenecks are easing. The parts you’ve been waiting for should arrive shortly. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York compiles a monthly Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI) (chart below).It shows that global supply chain pressures decreased in September, marking a fifth consecutive month of easing. The September decline was quite broad-based. The GSCPI’s ytd movements suggest that global supply chain pressures are beginning to fall

Ed Yardeni

Money Flooding Into US From Overseas

Sep 19, 2022 1 min read

Money from overseas is pouring into the US capital markets, which foreign investors regard as a haven in a world that’s increasingly unsafe for them. Their mantra is “TINAC: There is no alternative country!” The US Treasury International Capital System (TICS) reported on Friday that private net capital inflows totaled $1.5 trillion over the past 12 months through July, near recent record inflows (chart below). Over this same

Ed Yardeni

TINAC & TICS Update

Aug 16, 2022 1 min read

June's Treasury International Capital System (TICS) was released on Monday. The TICS data tend to confirm our TINAC thesis, i.e., there is no alternative country: the US is a safe haven for global investors confronted with a very stormy global investment climate. Consider the following: (1) On a 12-month basis through June, the US had private net capital inflows of $1.5 trillion (chart below). It'

Ed Yardeni

ECB Stuck Between A Rock & A Hard Place

Aug 3, 2022 1 min read paid

Soaring consumer prices and the prospect of energy rationing this coming winter have depressed consumer confidence in the Eurozone. No wonder that the volume of retail sale in the region fell 1.2% m/m and 3.7% y/y during June, suggesting that the risks of a recession in the Eurozone are increasing (chart below).

Ed Yardeni

Signs of Peak Inflation

Aug 1, 2022 1 min read

Today was a good day for those of us expecting to see peak inflation soon. July's US manufacturing purchasing managers (M-PMI) survey found that the M-PMI prices-paid index dropped to 60.0 from 87.1 in January. That's not surprising since the prices-paid and prices-received indexes that we compile from the five regional business surveys confirmed that inflationary pressures may be abating (charts below). That'

Ed Yardeni

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