Core PCE (ex food and energy) was up 0.4% m/m. Overall PCE was up 0.3% m/m. Markets are up because the data was as expected, not hotter.
Folks are getting rejected for car loans. Supposedly credit is tightest since 2020, as banks are concerned about defaults. Tighter lending is NOT good for growth.
US applications for home purchases dropped for a 5th week, per Bloomberg. Maybe it’s because of labor insecurity. Weekly jobless claims increased. So did continuing claims numbers. But perhaps we’ll see a reversal this spring as pent-up supply comes on the market.
Salesforce beat on rev + earnings, plus announced a 40 cent dividend and a huge $10bn buyback. But do you need Einstein AI Copilot, its AI solution? We don’t. Annual guidance was below expectations, so you’re either bullish and think it’s conservative, or you’re disappointed. Snowflake’s CEO is retiring on the heels of a softer product revenue guide, per CNBC. HP missed on its 1Q rev figures because of low PC demand. Apple resellers in China are cutting iPhone 15 prices because of low demand too. Baba cut prices (on ave 20%, up to 55%) on cloud services to compete with Tencent and Baidu. Never a sign of a healthy market.
Insider sales are up.
Ultra-long bond yields in China were down hard as investors bet there’d be more monetary easing to kickstart the country’s economy, per Bloomberg. Equity markets popped.
Some economists are predicting that rates could increase as borrowers have to pay more for a smaller supply of cash. Don’t tell that to the Fed.