Monday Morning Meeting Notes (12/25/2023)

General Info:

• U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) for November showed a slowdown in the pace of inflation
• PCE declined -0.1% month-over-month, while the year-over-year figure rose 2.6% (vs. expectations of 0.0% and 2.8%, respectively)
• The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge – Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.1% month-over-month and 3.2% year-over-year (vs. expectations of 0.2% and 3.3%, respectively)
• Fun Fact: The first New Year’s celebration dates back 4,000 years. Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome, was the first to declare January 1^st a holiday. He named the month after Janus, the Roman god of doors and gates. Janus had two faces, one looking forward and one looking back, so Caesar felt that a month named after this god would be fitting

Monday 12/25:

• XPYRIA’s office and financial markets are closed for the Christmas Day holiday

Tuesday 12/26:

• XPYRIA’s office is closed
• Japan unemployment data for November

Wednesday 12/27:

• Bank of Japan (BOJ) issues the Summary of Opinions from its December monetary policy meeting
• China industrial profits for November

Thursday 12/28:

• National Chocolate Candy Day – Reese’s Take-5 and Twix bars are this author’s favorites
• Cacao/chocolate was originally ground into a beverage and used for medical purposes. In 1828, Dutch inventor and chemist, Coenraad Van Houten, developed a way to produce chocolate in solid form. His hydraulic press made it possible to remove the cocoa butter from the cacao, producing a powder. It’s thanks to Van Houten that we can enjoy the variety of chocolates we do today
• U.S. initial jobless claims and continuing claims data
• U.S. wholesale inventories for November
• Japan retail sales and industrial production data for November

Friday 12/29:

• U.K. home prices for December
• South Korea consumer price index (CPI) data for December