January's M2 money supply data shows a negative growth rate of 1.7% versus a year ago, the biggest year-over-year decline on record and the first time it has contracted in back-to-back months. This does not mean the Fed is done hiking; far from it. #CoSoFinance https://www.barrons.com/articles/m2-money-supply-federal-reserve-53c64103?mod

Bloomberg: "Despite representing less affluent districts, the Republican Party has shown no interest in representing less affluent interests". But hey, at least those poor crackers get to own the libs, right? #Politics https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-03-01/poor-voters-are-losing-out-in-the-culture-wars

Elon's plan to make Twitter pay for itself isn't going so well. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-02-28/sorry-twitter-elon-musk-found-his-next-shiny-object

Yep.

Hey, if you're looking for something to read, and you like steampunk and rollicking adventures, I just published a novel on Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Steam-Sean-Brodrick-ebook/dp/B0BWSXT4LG/ref=sr_1_1

Good morning, CoSoNauts. Happy Hump Day! The week is downhill from here.

What day is it? It's Mando Day!
The Mandalorian season 3 premieres in the US on Disney Plus on Wednesday, March 1, at 12:00 a.m. PT, 3:00 a.m. ET, and 2:00 a.m. CT.
#Mandalorian

Very interesting chart, which seems to show that the broad market rallies during rate hike cycles. I'd point out that THIS market is dependent like no other on trader anticipation of Fed rate hikes, because Wall Street now lives on "cheap" money. I would favor value over growth #CoSoFinance

Interesting, and I wonder how many Americans aren't taking advantage of this program because they simply don't know about it? "Americans Are Saving $500 Million Monthly on Internet Fees" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-27/americans-save-500-million-monthly-on-internet-fees-harris-to-say

We went to the Lake Worth street painting festival yesterday. I love this kind of art

In the energy complex, West Texas intermediate #crude #oil -- the U.S. benchmark -- had another sideways week last week. #NatGas meanwhile, tried to rally last week. We'd need to see follow-through on higher volume to believe that. #CoSoFinance

With the U.S. dollar rallying, #gold sits on the opposite end of the seesaw of pain. #CoSoFinance

US Dollar Index continues to rally as market ratchets up expectations for more Fed rate hikes. #CoSoFinance

The week before last, it looked like #copper bounced from support. Last week, it came down to test and potentially break support. The saving grace is volume was low. We'll see how this week goes. #CoSoFinance

I'm going to take a wild guess and say the "ambiguous" part of this inflation is companies raising prices just because they can. #CoSofinance #inflation source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/confused-about-whats-causing-inflation-this-metric-shows-whats-driving-the-price-rise-dabc48e4

From Mike Konzal: It's not just that goods had a big positive number, it's that the PCE non-housing services, the specific number the Fed is watching, had a big hit on the positive side and hasn't been slowing. #CoSoFinance #inflation #economy

The core personal-consumption expenditures price index, also known as the core PCE deflator, rose 4.7% year over year in January, up from 4.4% in December and higher than the 4.3% growth economists surveyed by FactSet had expected. The increase in core PCE for December, initially reported as 4.4%, was revised to 4.6%, showing price growth at the end of last year was hotter than previously thought.
Headline y/y 5.4% vs 5%
Consumer spending 1.8% vs 1.4%
Personal income 0.6% vs 1% #CoSoFinance

The Biden boom continues.
U.S. Jobless claims declined 3k to 192k (200k est)
Continuing claims dropped 37k to 1,654k (1,700 est)
On the downside, the Fed hates the strong jobs market. This news gives it no reason to stop hiking its benchmark interest rate. #CoSoFinance

"Shared Sacrifices"

All eyes on Federal Reserve rate hikes: The market continues to price in higher probability of higher for longer Fed rate hikes. As long as this happens, we can expect stocks to sell off. Next inflation hints/data: We get the February Fed minutes on Wednesday and January core PCE on Friday. #CoSoFinance