Daily update
Daily update
- US producer price data is mercifully free of problematic used-car prices and fantasy owners’ equivalent rent. It is also less susceptible to profit-led inflation, covering prices further up the supply chain. The final demand measure has been below 2% y/y for almost a year now, and the overall picture should be of benign inflation pressures.
- US February retail sales data include price effects, and some spending on having fun—restaurant spending is included (not the international norm). Profit-led inflation has gone into retreat and retailers have started to profess their love for their customers, so consumers seem more inclined to spend money. It is wonderful what some careful price discounting can do.
- There are five individual ECB speakers on the agenda today, with De Cos having so much to say as to need to speak twice. Whether anyone can be bothered to listen is another matter. Markets expect the ECB to ease, but suspect the ECB will be late to ease (they were also late to tighten, and late to stop tightening).
- The US House of Representatives voted to increase youth unemployment in the US by effectively banning TikTok. There are concerns that China’s government may learn the dance steps to Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” by seizing TikTok data.
