Macro Briefing: 13 September 2024

US jobless claims edged higher last week but remain at a middling level compared with the range over the past two years. This leading indicator continues to reflect a relatively upbeat outlook for the labor market. “After some noise earlier in the summer, initial jobless claims have settled into a tight range over the last several weeks,” says Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics. On a longer-term basis, claims layoffs remain near historically low levels.

US wholesale inflation slowed in August on a year-over-year basis vs. the previous month. The downshift follows the previous day’s news that consumer price inflation’s annual pace eased at the headline level. But for both wholesale and consumer inflation the numbers showed that the core measured remained steady (consumer) and ticked up (wholesale).
The latest consumer price inflation data for the US in August continues to point to an ongoing disinflationary trend, advises a research note from TMC Research. For example, the average year-over-year trend for several alternative and conventional inflation benchmark continued to ease last month–a robust signal that pricing pressure remains on track to fall in the near term.
About 33,000 union members at Boeing vote to strike, the first at the company in 16 years. The company’s total workforce is roughly 150,000.
US government interest payments on the national debt top $1 trillion as deficit rises. For the first time in history, the country has spent more than $1 trillion this year on interest payments for its $35.3 trillion national debt, the Treasury Department reports.
European Central Bank cut interest rates for a second time in recent months on news of slowing inflation and softer economic growth. “Growth in the eurozone has underperformed expectations, with activity likely to weaken in the second half of the year,” notes KPMG chief economist Yael Selfin.
China is at risk of suffering a deflationary spiral, predicts The Wall Street Journal: “As China sits on the precipice of deflation, Wall Street economists are calling for more fiscal stimulus in the country. But Beijing may still not act boldly enough.”
Gold rose to a new record high on Thursday, topping $2580 an ounce. “We are headed towards a lower interest rate environment so gold is becoming a lot more attractive… I think we could potentially have a lot more frequent cuts as opposed to a bigger magnitude,” says Alex Ebkarian, chief operating officer at Allegiance Gold. Adrian Ash, director of research at Bullionvault, advises: “Simple fact is that gold is rising because it’s in a bull market. Long-term, gold’s uptrend is clearly being supported by geopolitical violence and tensions ahead of the U.S. election.”