Monday Morning Meeting Notes (09/18/2023)

General Info:

• U.S. consumer price index (CPI) for August remained well above policymakers’ target of 2%
• CPI increased 0.6% month-over-month and 3.7% year-over-year
• The largest contributor to the monthly gain in CPI was gasoline, which accounted for more than half of the increase. In addition, shelter costs rose for the 40^th consecutive month
• Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, increased 0.3% month-over-month and 4.3% year-over-year
• “Supercore” CPI, which measures the services component excluding shelter, rose 0.4% month-over-month and the year-over-year figure increased slightly from 4.0% to 4.1%
• The European Central Bank (ECB) surprised market participants by raising rates by 0.25% last week
• The ECB’s main refinancing operations rate is now 4.50%
• Fun Fact: Did you know that there are three different species of elephant? The African Savannah elephant, the African Forest elephant, and the Asian elephant
• But how can we tell the difference? African elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa, while Asian elephants’ ears are smaller and shaped like India
• Both male and female African elephants grow those iconic ivory tusks, but only male Asian elephants grow them. A tusk-less adult elephant is likely to be a female Asian elephant

Monday 09/18:

• Apple is expected to release the iPhone’s latest operating system, iOS 17

Tuesday 09/19:

• National Talk Like A Pirate Day
• U.S. housing starts and building permits data for August
• Eurozone CPI data for August
• The United Nations’ 78^th general assembly begins and will run through September 26^th
• The OECD releases its interim economic outlook report on the global economy

Wednesday 09/20:

• National Pepperoni Pizza Day
• FedEx and General Mills report earnings
• Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy meeting, followed by Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference
• The Fed is expected to maintain the fed funds rate at a target of 5.25-5.50%
• U.K. CPI data for August

Thursday 09/21:

• U.S. leading economic index
• U.S. initial jobless claims and continuing claims data
• U.S. existing home sales for August
• Bank of England (BOE) monetary policy meeting, which is expected to show a 0.25% rate hike and bring the rate to 5.50%

Friday 09/22:

• Bank of Japan (BOJ) monetary policy meeting
• S&P Global Manufacturing PMI data for the U.S., Eurozone, U.K., France, Germany, and Japan
• S&P Global Services PMI data for the U.S., Eurozone, U.K., France, Germany, and Japan