The University of Michigan released its Consumer Sentiment Index on August 16th, showing a preliminary reading of 67.8 for August, up slightly by 1.4 points from 66.4 in the previous month. The report indicates that with Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, confi...

The U.S. Census Bureau released retail sales data on August 15. In July, retail sales increased by 2.7% year-over-year, higher than the revised 2% from the previous month. On a month-over-month basis, retail sales rose by 1%, significantly above the revised -0.2% from the previous month and the mark...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the CPI data on August 14th, showing a year-over-year increase of 2.9% in July, slightly below the data in the previous month and market expectations of 3.0%. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose by 3.2% year-over-year, down from 3.3% in th...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Producer Price Index (PPI) on August 13th, showing a year-over-year increase of 2.2% for July, lower than the previous month's 2.7% and below market expectations of 2.3%. The month-over-month increase was 0.1%, also below the prior month and market ex...

Over the past two weeks, the unexpected rate hike by Japan, coupled with weak U.S. manufacturing PMI and rising unemployment rates, sparked fears of an economic recession in the markets. Meanwhile the strengthening of the yen prompted a significant number of carry trade investors to sell assets to ...