The attack on the Saudi oil production facility at Abqaiq over the weekend will temporarily remove roughly 5.7 million barrels of oil production per day, or about 5% of the total global supply. The price of global benchmark Brent Crude rose 14.25% on Monday, while West Texas Intermediate was up 14.38%. ... READ MORE >
Joe Brusuelas
Fed preview: Difficulty and divided FOMC
Monetary policy is difficult under the best of circumstances. The cross currents of the trade war, a modest exogenous supply shock in oil markets, political pressure from the executive branch to reduce interest rates and former colleagues suggesting the Federal Reserve get political make the rate decision ... READ MORE >
The RSM Brexit Stress Index: Reacting to a Parliamentary dose of recession prevention
The RSM Brexit Stress Index surged sharply during the week amid attempts by Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party prime minister, to curtail objections to a no-deal Brexit but eased at week’s end as Parliament regained control of government. The index rose as high as 1.97 standard deviations above ... READ MORE >
August hiring slows: Jobs report shows unflattering shape of things to come
August hiring slowed to 130,000 jobs, reflecting late-cycle business dynamics and the impact of the trade war that is now spilling over into the real economy. After adjusting for Census Bureau hiring, the top-line hiring increase was only 105,000 jobs, just above the 100,000 necessary to stabilize the ... READ MORE >
US August employment preview: focus on goods producing and manufacturing jobs
Investor attention will be squarely focused on the pace of hiring in goods production and manufacturing in the August U.S. employment report released on Friday. The results will follow a decline in the August ISM manufacturing employment sub-index to 47.4, which implies contraction in hiring across those ... READ MORE >
RSM Brexit Stress Index posts highest level since June 2016 referendum
The RSM Brexit Stress Index reached its highest level since the U.K.’s June 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, closing at 1.93, up 8 points on Tuesday from 1.85 a week earlier, amid instability in the U.K. government. Earlier in the day, Conservative Party Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who ... READ MORE >
RSM Brexit Stress Index surges on likelihood of “no deal” Brexit
The RSM Brexit Stress Index surged on Wednesday, following news that the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson had received the okay to suspend Parliament just weeks ahead of a deadline for the U.K. to chart its path for withdrawal from the European Union. The composite index, which measures ... READ MORE >
RSM Brexit Stress Index: Factoring in longer-term issues
The RSM Brexit Stress Index ended higher again this week on increased volatility. The composite index, which measures economic stress surrounding Britain’s impending departure from the European Union, closed at 1.74 on Friday from 1.64 a week ago. The foreign exchange market remains focused on ... READ MORE >
US data deluge: cold cup of coffee on a sunny summer day
This morning’s data deluge provided a perfect snapshot of the U.S. economy at the current time. A robust consumer, driven by strong real compensation in the first quarter of the year, continued to prop up the American economy, even as the domestic manufacturing sector contracted by 0.5% on a year-ago ... READ MORE >
Real negative yields signal business cycle nearing an end
The increasing probability that the U.S.-China trade and financial war will be a permanent feature of the global economic landscape is the catalyst for the inversion of the two-year-10-year Treasury yield curve on Wednesday. This inversion of that portion of the curve is the first since June 2007, which ... READ MORE >