cpi posts
FeedPosted Mar 13th 2011 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Economic Data, Federal Reserve
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets again this week to review economic conditions and set monetary policy. On whether the Fed should end quantitative easing or extend it, Atlanta Fed chairman Dennis Lockhart recently said that the Fed should remain flexible given the rising energy prices, which could be a sign of coming inflation. Either at this meeting or the next, the Fed could signal that interest rates will rise as a hedge against inflation.
Inflation will also be the focus when the Department of Labor releases the Producer Price Index (PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) this week. Back in January the core PPI (which excludes energy and food costs) had its biggest jump in two years, and the core CPI had its largest uptick in more than year, the second month in a row in which consumer prices jumped.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Inflation, the FOMC and Nike Earnings
Posted Jan 9th 2011 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Intel (INTC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Alcoa Inc (AA), Economic Data
Alcoa (AA), Intel (INTC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) will kick off a new earnings season this week when they report their results for the fourth quarter of 2010. Here's a quick look at what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to see, followed by a glance at what's coming up on the economic calendar.
Alcoa
During its fourth quarter, Alcoa saw increased demand in emerging markets, sold surplus properties, and shared revenue targets with investors. Analysts forecast that earnings for the period will come to 19 cents per share, up from just a penny per share in the same quarter of last year. The New York-based aluminum producer also is expected to post revenue of $5.7 billion for the three months that ended in December, which is 4.5% more than a year earlier.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Alcoa, Intel, JPMorgan Kick Off New Earnings Season
Posted Dec 15th 2010 4:20PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: BP p.l.c. ADS (BP)
Moody's gave a warning to Spain and the Greeks rioted again. CPI showed tame inflation and industrial capacity was close to two-year highs. We also had at least four IPOs and the Senate passed the Bush tax-cut extension for two years. The markets looked set for a rally but the end of day trading again failed to materialize into a win for the bulls. Here were today's closing bell levels:
DJIA: 11,457.47, -19.07 (0.17%)
S&P 500: 1.235.23, -6.36 (0.51%)
NASDAQ: 2,617.22, -10.50 (0.40%)
Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades
Continue reading Closing Bell: Concerns Outweigh Tax Cuts (ARAY, BIDU, BP, CYPB, JOYG, FSLR)
Posted Dec 12th 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Best Buy (BBY), FedEx Corp (FDX), Economic Data
FedEx Corp. (FDX), the world's leading package delivery service and an ostensible bellwether of the U.S. economy, will dance its way onto the earnings stage this week. Also, with the holiday shopping season well underway, Best Buy Co. (BBY) and Discover Financial Services (DFS) are scheduled to offer up their most recent quarterly results.
Here's a closer look at what the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting from these three, plus a peek at the week's economic calendar.
Continue reading Week in Preview: FedEx, Best Buy, Discover to Deliver Earnings
Posted Oct 10th 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Google (GOOG), General Electric (GE), Intel (INTC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Economic Data
The earnings season kicked off last week with better-than-expected results from Alcoa (AA) and Yum! Brands (YUM), while Marriott (MAR) and Pepsico (PEP) met consensus EPS estimates. This week, bellwether companies Intel (INTC), General Electric (GE), Google (GOOG) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) are scheduled to report their third-quarter results, and analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are looking for earnings growth from all of them.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel announced the acquisition of McAfee and joint ventures with General Electric and Nokia (NOK) during its third quarter. Analysts forecast earnings for that period to come to 50 cents per share, which is up 34.0% from the same period of last year. The number one semiconductor maker's revenue for the three months ended in September is expected to total $11.0 billion, or 17.1% more than a year earlier. Looking ahead to the full year, the forecast thus far is for earnings of $1.94 per share (+44.8%) and $43.3 billion in revenue (+23.4%). The per-share earnings topped analysts' expectations in the past four quarters, by as much as a dime per share.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Earnings Expectations for Intel, GE, Google and JPMorgan
Posted Sep 12th 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Best Buy (BBY), FedEx Corp (FDX), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Economic Data
Last week, the Fed's Beige Book report confirmed that the economy continues to grow, but at a slower pace than in previous periods. This week will bring plenty of economic data to either support or contrast with the Fed's findings.
- Monday: Federal government budget balance for August
- Tuesday: Business inventory numbers from July, TIPP Economic Optimism Index for September, retail sales data from August
- Wednesday: Industrial production in August, Empire State Manufacturing Survey for September, Import Price Index for August
- Thursday: Producer Price Index for August, Philly Fed Survey for September, the Current Account Balance in the second quarter, jobless claims for last week
- Friday: preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, Consumer Price Index for August, real earnings data for August
Continue reading The Week in Preview: FedEx, Best Buy, Oracle and Lots of Economic Data
Posted May 26th 2010 1:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Economic Data
The inflation hawks, hard-pressed to find inflation in either the consumer price index or the producer price index, or their core rates, have not given up their mission to find inflation when it doesn't exist, and isn't likely to for a long time.
CPI is running at a 2.2% annual rate, and the core rate is 0.9%. PPI is running at a high annual rate, 5.5%, but exclude food and energy, and the core rate is up just 1.0%.
The typical, alternate argument forwarded? When cash-flush banks start lending in a big way again, we'll have many more dollars chasing essentially the same amount of goods, and inflation will zoom to much higher levels.
Continue reading Is U.S. Inflation About to Heat-Up?
Posted May 19th 2010 10:00AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Economic Data

The Labor Department's recently released April consumer inflation figures may cast a bit of a bearish shadow on the Street. Consumer
prices dropped 0.1% last month, on a seasonally adjusted basis. This is the first decline in the consumer price index since March 2009. The impetus for the drop was a decline in energy, housing, auto and apparel prices.
That said, the consumer price index has increased 2.2% in the past year. What's more, the core CPI, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, was unchanged, pushing the year-over-year increase in core inflation lower to 0.9%. This benchmark is at its lowest since January 1966.
Continue reading Consumer Prices Slip During April
Posted May 18th 2010 6:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Economic Data

If there's an inflation hawk that's still circling, no doubt it will now be headed back to its nest. For a long time.
The reason? The April producer price index report, which revealed an
0.1% price decline in April, and an 0.2% rise excluding food and energy. Further, the core-PPI is up a scant
1.0% in the past 12 months, and when combined with the
1.1% increase in the core consumer price index in the same period, the picture is one of disinflation. Even worse, the threat of deflation continues.
Continue reading Is Inflation Threat on The Horizon?
Posted Apr 11th 2010 11:40AM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Indices, DJIA, Federal Reserve
With institutional bulls and bears engaged in a battle over Dow 11,000 and with market's bull run showing signs of getting a little long in the tooth, investors are legitimately asking whether now is good time to exit certain stocks that have registered impressive gains, in anticipation of a correction.
The major unknown, of course, is whether a correction is up ahead. What's one act that will add ammunition to the bears' argument? The U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
Continue reading Inflation Level, Not Q1 Earnings, to Determine Rally's Fate
Posted Feb 19th 2010 10:00AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Economic Data
The Labor Department Friday morning injected data that some see as a ray of hope. U.S. core
consumer prices dropped 0.1% in January. This figure takes food and energy out of the equation, so a full-on bear run may be quelled by the fact that adding food and energy into the equation results in a 0.2% gain.
The core CPI was dragged lower by costs for new vehicles, shelter and airline fares. Last January, core inflation increased 1.6%. But this drop may be just what the market needed after Dell's (
DELL)
lackluster results and the Federal Reserve's
surprise rate hike late Thursday. The lack of inflationary pressures shown as seen by the decline in core CPI could quell some concerns about a possible broader Fed rate hike.
Continue reading U.S. Consumer Prices Unexpectedly Fall
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