ECB accounts of its October monetary policy meeting addressed a lot of key questions. The big one, is inflation transitory and are we headed for stagflation? The Bank recalled that stagflation experiences in the 1970s occurred in a different environment, in which indexation allowed wages to react to energy prices. The shortage of critical supplies including energy and other commodities has “seen market-based measures of inflation compensation in the euro area had surged to their highest levels in over seven years, … Continue reading “ECB Stresses Current Inflation Hump Shaped Not Stagflation”
French Service Sector Expands While Manufacturing Falls Back Into Contraction
French manufacturing output fell back into contraction in July, overall France saw modest growth driven by the service sector with an expansion in business activity for the fourth month in a row.
Number One Risk for 2018 Is A Brutal Correction of Stock Prices Says French Watchdog
France’s market watchdog Autorite des Marches Financie (AMF) sees as the number risk for 2018 a brutal correction of stock prices. Goldman Sachs Bull/Bear Index is at the highest in almost 50 years. Analysts preach this time its different, is it?
France says Trade War Already Started and Europe United
Despite world wide investor apathy the Trade War iniiated by U.S. President Trump is quickly escalating. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Sunday said “he question is no longer whether or not there will be a trade war, the war has already started”.
Gypsum and Sheetrock Market Price Pressures Follow Hurricanes
The destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria has seen a slew of commodities prices go skyward. The most noted are lumber and gasoline. Perhaps the most poignant as we watch recocery as the mountains of sheetrock we see on curbs. The key commodity here is gypsum with its a price determined by a handful of players.