Consumer confidence has been rising since last summer, and over the last couple of months, it has jumped even more. Both the University of Michigan and the Conference Board’s measures of consumer confidence have risen 22 points since last summer. A simple reason is… gas prices. Confidence hit a bottom right around the time gas …

The Federal Reserve (Fed) raised the federal funds rates by 0.25% at their July meeting, taking rates to the 5.25 ­– 5.0% range — the highest in 22 years. This was widely expected. In fact, the Fed’s statement behind the decision was mostly unchanged relative to June, except for a subtle, but important change. Instead …

Ryan and I recently hosted Meb Faber of Cambria Investments on our Facts vs Feelings podcast. We covered a lot in that episode, but I want to pick out one thread in particular, i.e. dividends vs buybacks. As we discussed, dividends are one way corporation can return excess cash to shareholders. However, they can also …

We just got a bunch of data to round out the economic picture in the second quarter (Q2). Long story short: Not only do we see no sign of recession, but it also doesn’t even look like the economy is looking for a “landing” at this point. I realize this could change, but so far …

At the beginning of the year, we wrote in our 2023 Outlook that the US dollar was poised to weaken, creating tailwinds for Americans who invest in International stocks and S&P 500 earnings. We reiterated that this is starting to happen in our Mid-Year Outlook, “Edging Closer to Normal.” The chart below shows the recent …

The June CPI report was a positive surprise, both in terms of the headline numbers as well as the underlying details. Headline inflation rose 0.2% in June, which translates to a 2.2% annual pace. Over the past three months, inflation’s averaged about 2.7%, and over the last year it’s up 3.0%. That’s well off the …

We started this year discussing how the economy has been at the “edge of normal” in our 2023 outlook. The good news is that we have slowly but surely moved towards normal since then, even in the face of a banking crisis and debt ceiling drama. The “soft” economic data from sentiment surveys have been …

We’ve been getting a string of “economic surprises” from the consumer side for several months now. Employment data is a prime example, with monthly payroll gains coming in above expectations for 14 straight months. For a change, we just got some good news from the business side, particularly business investment. The Census Bureau collects data …

Rest in Peace, Dr./Professor Harry Markowitz, who passed last week at age 95. The picture shows him accepting the Nobel in Economics in 1990. Markowitz is known as the father of “Modern Portfolio Theory”, which for all practical purposes, told us that you should diversify your portfolio. Of course, it wasn’t like investors didn’t know …

I discussed housing in my prior blog, and how that’s good news for the economy. Single-family starts and permits have been surging recently, which is something you typically see when coming out of recessions. As opposed to something that happens prior to an economic slowdown. In fact, we look set to break an 8-quarter streak …