CPI soared to a new 40-year high: 8.6% YoY and 1.0% MoM. Core also exceeded consensus, coming in at 6.0%.
Futures are not amused, as this takes anything less than a 50 bps rate hike next week off the table. A 75 bps hike is suddenly a real possibility.
Needless to say, our analog remains very much on track.
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You can’t make this stuff up. With May inflation at 8.1% across the euro zone, the Governing Council is leaving rates unchanged with an increase of 25 bps to be unleashed in July to “ensure that inflation stabilizes toward its 2% target over the medium term.”
Sigh…
Futures continue forming their triangle with a denouement likely coming after US CPI tomorrow morning.
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USDJPY finally tagged our 132.22 target overnight…
…a target we set over six months ago [see: Update on Currencies Nov 17, 2021]:
Ordinarily, this might be a good thing for stocks. Not this time, as it echos the dollar’s strength against the euro.
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Futures have bounced about 1% overnight, retracing a Fibonacci 61.8% of the losses from Thursday’s highs.
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Per our analog, today is the next significant turning point – important in terms of confirming the direction and distance of the market’s next move. It has done an excellent job of forecasting the reversals, rallies and drops since we first posted it on May 13 [see: Analog Watch.] 
The first time I came across one of these, it worked out spectacularly. I started noticing in May 2011 that the turning points and rallies/declines which had been occurring at that time very closely matched those of the 2007 top.
Just after Day 32 in late June [see: Deja Vu All Over Again] I began laying the entire roadmap which would presumably end with a very sharp drop of around 20% by Day 70. As it turned out, the S&P 500 plunged 19.6% by Day 69. Details are available HERE.
The current analog is different in terms of how quickly things will play out. If it plays out, however, the market is in for much greater losses in the months ahead.
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The first quarter decline in non-farm productivity was the largest since 1947. The chart below from briefing.com shows the 7.5% plunge, contrasted with an 11.6% increase in unit labor costs. If the country had locked down during this time, you might be able to make an argument that a recession isn’t necessarily coming. 
But, this slowdown came courtesy of a 2.4% output decrease. In other words, it’s another reason to believe a recession is here and a soft landing ain’t in the cards.
Futures have been all over the map overnight, but are currently hanging on to the channel bottom from May 20. Note that we finally got that 10/20 cross and are nearing a backtest of the 50-day moving average – just in time to set up a nice trap.
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Futures are moderately higher this morning as algos respond enthusiastically to Salesforce’s earnings and ignore the ongoing meltdown in mortgage applications and uptick in COVID cases. Here’s a snapshot of testing results at my daughter’s college, which finally reinstated a mask mandate after the positivity rate reached 10%.
I think they could use a primer on chart reading…
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PCE comes out later this morning, providing the most up-to-date picture of the challenge facing the Fed. Judging from yesterday’s 2% pop, investors are hopeful that inflation might be leveling off. 
Futures are off very slightly.
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The Information reports that Sequoia Capital has issued a warning to its startup founders, detailing a series of moves that should be taken to avoid a “death spiral.”
“Its latest warning to its portfolio companies takes the form of a 52-slide presentation, a copy of which was viewed by The Information. Sequoia described the current combination of turbulent financial markets, inflation and geopolitical conflict as a “crucible moment” of uncertainty and change. Sequoia told founders not to expect a speedy economic bounceback akin to what followed the start of the pandemic because, it warned, the monetary and fiscal policy tools that propelled that recovery “have been exhausted.””
Sitting here in Silicon Valley today, where one bedroom shacks still fetch $1.5 million despite sliding tech stock prices, it’s not hard to imagine that the worst is yet to come.
Futures are up modestly this morning, with our analog still on track.
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It’s a big week for economic data, with earnings and outlook announcements already setting a bearish tone. First up this morning is April new home sales, which came in at 591k units – a 16.6% drop from March and a 32.9% plunge from April 2021. It barely beat the 2020 pandemic lows.
As everyone now knows, this is a direct result of the sharp rise in mortgage rates which is a direct result of the sharp rise in inflation resulting from the Fed’s policy mistake: driving rates much too low for much too long as discussed last July [see: Time to Sell Your Home?]
Over the past month, it has seemed that the old “bad news is good news” meme which played such an important role during ZIRP had been sidelined. Based on recent Fedspeak, however, it’s probably better characterized as being in cold storage. The Fed’s determination to reduce inflation will be sorely tested in the days ahead.
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