The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index, The Empire State Index, rose in January to 11.9 from a revised 9.9 in December. Readings greater than zero signal expansion. The index covers New York, northern New Jersey, and southern Connecticut.
Clearly, the Fed money printing is having its impact. The new orders index moved up 10 points to 12.4 and the shipments index jumped 18 points to 25.4. Employment indexes also climbed into positive territory.
Further, both the prices paid and the prices received indexes climbed, a clear indication of price inflation. The futures prices index is now at multi-year highs.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteAll this talk on inflation has got me wondering. Inflation has traditionally been good for stocks, has it not?
Well, since inflation has been picking up, could you reconcile this fact with the fact that last week, as Bloomberg reported, I think for the first time in history, there was no insider buying of stocks, and only insider selling of stocks? Last week was the extreme no doubt, but before that, for months on end, insider selling far outstripped insider buying.
The smart money is leaving stocks, when inflation is (allegedly) supposed to be bullish for stocks.