Monday Morning Meeting Notes (05/06/2024)

General Info:

• As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) left the fed funds rate unchanged at 5.25-5.50%
• The Fed will reduce the maximum amount of Treasuries allowed to run off its balance sheet from $60 billion to $25 billion per month beginning in June. The monthly run-off of mortgage-backed securities will remain unchanged at $35 billion per month
• The U.S. employment report for April showed 175,000 new jobs added (vs. expectations of 250,000)
• The unemployment rate ticked higher as it moved from 3.8% to 3.9%
• Fun Fact: Since this past weekend was the Pittsburgh Marathon, here’s a topical fun fact. The first Pittsburgh Marathon was held in 1985 and was won by a married couple. Lisa Martin, an Olympian originally from Australia, won the women’s race; her husband, Ken, won the men’s race

Monday 05/06:

• Fed issues its senior loan officer survey on bank lending practices
• S&P Global Services PMI for the Eurozone
• China Caixin Services PMI for April
• The first full week in May is National Wildflower Week – one of the many benefits of wildflowers is that they create a habitat for pollinators, such as monarch butterflies and honey bees

Tuesday 05/07:

• Disney, BP PLC, UBS, Duke Energy, McKesson, TransDigm, Occidental Petroleum, Sempra Energy, Lyft, and Upstart Holdings report earnings
• Eurozone retail sales for March
• China forex reserves for April
• Chile copper exports for April

Wednesday 05/08:

• Toyota, Uber, Anheuser-Busch, Airbnb, Arm Holdings, Shopify, Energy Transfer, Ambev, Texas Pacific Land Corp, and Aurora Innovation report earnings
• Germany industrial production for March

Thursday 05/09:

• Petrobras, Brookfield, Honda, Sun Life Financial, Mettler-Toledo, argenx SE, Warner Bros. Discovery, EPAM Systems, Trex, Stevanato Group, and Americold Realty Trust report earnings
• U.S. initial jobless claims and continuing claims data
• Bank of England (BOE) monetary policy meeting, followed by Governor Andrew Bailey’s press conference
• In addition, the BOE will release its decision maker panel survey on inflation expectations
• Bank of Japan (BOJ) issues the summary of opinions from its April policy meeting

Friday 05/10:

• U.S. University of Michigan consumer sentiment index
• U.K. GDP data for Q1 2024, which is expected to have grown 0.4% quarter-over-quarter and remained flat at 0.0% year-over-year
• European Central Bank (ECB) publishes the account from its April policy meeting