Submitted by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,
Oil prices have traded reliably in the $50s per barrel since OPEC agreed to cut production last November, but having failed to break through a ceiling in the upper-$50s, crude prices are in danger of falling back again.
For the first time since Q1 2013, mortgage delinquencies rose QoQ in Q4. The jump from 4.52% (of total loans) to 4.80% is the largest since Q1 2010 and hit as mortgage rates spiked following President Trump's election and Fed Chair Yellen's jawboning and rate-hike.
Of course, levels remain 'low' relative to the extreme highs of the financial crisis. One word springs to mind - "contained"
Worryingly rates remain high, inflation is surging, Yellen is set for more hikes, and real wages are dropping...
Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen is likely to face a tougher audience today as she returns to Capitol Hill for a second day of monetary policy testimony, this time before the House Financial Services Committee.
Yesterday the market focused on Yellen's comments before the Senate Banking Committee that the Fed would likely raise short-term interest rates “at our upcoming meetings” amid an improving economy, a signal that a move could come as soon as the central bank’s next meeting in March...which sent the March rate hike odds soaring.
By EconMatters
Stagflationary disaster looms.
As prognosticators ohh and aah over the soaring consumer price index (up 2.5% YoY - the most since March 2012), driven by a 14.2% YoY spike in gasoline prices, it appears they missed the fact that real average weekly earnings plunged by 0.6% YoY - the biggest wage collapse since November 2011.
After Germany and China's inflation-a-palooza, US consumer prices are soaring too... The 0.6% MoM rise is the most since Feb 2013 and 2.5% YoY rise is the highest since March 2012.