Author Archives: Michael Murphy

Dear New World Investor: Tuesday’s headline Consumer Price Index for June was 2.7% year-over-year, an uptick from May’s 2.4% and a tenth above the consensus expectation for 2.6%. The month-over-month increase was 0.3%, also an uptick from May’s 0.1%. The acceleration was widely attributed to President Trump’s tariffs, but...

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Dear New World Investor: It’s the dog days of summer. There are a couple of biotech conferences coming up next week, but not much else happening until Corning and PayPal report June quarter earnings on July 29. Then the floodgates open with earnings reports through August – not to...

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Dear New World Investor: Last Friday’s May Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index increased 2.3% year-over-year, a slight uptick from April’s 2.2%. The month-over-month increase from April was 0.1%. The Fed’s favorite inflation indicator, the core PCE that excludes changes in food and energy prices, was up 2.7% year-over-year. Both...

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Dear New World Investor: Last September 16, CareerBuilder and Monster merged. The CEO said: “The combination of CareerBuilder and Monster brings together two strong, trusted, complementary brands to create a job board with greater scale and reach.” On Tuesday, a short nine months later, the merged company filed for...

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Dear New World Investor: Well, you all just set a personal best – consecutive Fed days without panicking – as Chairman Powell et. al. held interest rates steady Wednesday at 4.25%-4.50% for the fourth meeting in a row since last cutting in December. They kept their projection for two...

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Dear New World Investor: May’s nonfarm payrolls jobs report showed the US economy added 139,000 jobs, more than the consensus expectation for 126,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. The April number was revised down from 177,000 to 147,000. So in spite of President Trump’s tariff volatility, the...

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Dear New World Investor: As you know, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Index (PCE) strips out the volatile food and energy components from the headline PCE price index to provide a clearer picture of underlying inflation trends. I refer to the core PCE as the Fed’s favorite inflation indicator,...

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Dear New World Investor: The second estimate of March quarter real GDP growth this morning was little changed on the surface, down 0.2% instead of the initial estimate of down 0.3%. But under the hood, the positive difference seemed to be inventory investments to beat President Trump’s tariffs. Personal...

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Dear New World Investor: Who are the bears with sideline cash to take the stock market to all-time highs? Well, hedge funds have added $25 Billion of short equity futures exposure over the last three Commitment Of Traders reports, the largest increase in the last ten years. Click for...

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Dear New World Investor: The headline April Consumer Price Index was +2.3%, the slowest increase since February 2021 and a tenth below both market expectations and the March number even though many of President Trump’s tariffs were in effect. Month-over-month, prices increased 0.2%. That was better than the 0.3%...

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