Latest / Markets with Megan: A Quick Financial Markets Update / New Inflation Data – Is It Good or Bad? | S2 E020 | 03-12-25

Transcript

New Inflation Data – Is It Good or Bad? | S2 E020 | 03-12-25 · Markets with Megan: A Quick Financial Markets Update

• 0:00
  Megan Horneman: The markets like that inflation data we got today.
• 0:02
  Megan Horneman: It's Wednesday, March the 12th, and this is Markets with Megan.
• 0:05
  Megan Horneman: If you like this podcast, please subscribe, hit that alarm bell or share it with friends, family and colleagues.
• 0:10
  Megan Horneman: But let's dig into the economic data that we got today on the inflation front.
• 0:14
  Megan Horneman: This is called the Consumer Price Index and we've been weighting this data as well as some other data this week to get us a better gauge of where we are from inflation.
• 0:24
  Megan Horneman: The inflation data today came in a little bit better than expected.
• 0:28
  Megan Horneman: On a year-over-year level, the headline rate is rising 2.8% and that's slightly better than last month's 3% on a year-over-year level.
• 0:37
  Megan Horneman: At the core level, which excludes the energy and food prices, these are volatile items that grew 3.1% better than the 3.3% we saw last year on an annual basis.
• 0:50
  Megan Horneman: So what does all this mean?
• 0:51
  Megan Horneman: This is good data.
• 0:52
  Megan Horneman: It's one inflation data point.
• 0:54
  Megan Horneman: We'll have producer price index tomorrow.
• 0:57
  Megan Horneman: The Fed will like this data, but it's not exactly where the Fed wants it to be yet.
• 1:01
  Megan Horneman: When you look and break apart these details, you'll see that, first of all, some of the areas of the economy where we're seeing the consumer spending, we're starting to see them weaken a bit.
• 1:13
  Megan Horneman: We're looking at airline fares that were down 4% just over the month and this echoes some comments from airline CEOs where they're seeing softening in demand, that's, a pullback in consumer spending.
• 1:25
  Megan Horneman: We're also looking at vehicles, which declined as well, so vehicle prices are down.
• 1:30
  Megan Horneman: This again is softer demand from the consumer.
• 1:33
  Megan Horneman: So these things are good.
• 1:35
  Megan Horneman: This is a good sign because sometimes the cure for high prices is high prices.
• 1:40
  Megan Horneman: Eventually the consumers will say no and what we're seeing is that in some of those travel and, as we mentioned, transportation prices Now where we're still seeing some inflation pressures continue to be in the housing data.
• 1:52
  Megan Horneman: So owner's equivalent rent, which makes up a large portion of this index, that grew three-tenths of a percent and is growing 4.4% on a year-over-year basis on a year-over-year basis.
• 2:01
  Megan Horneman: Food prices a little elevated.
• 2:03
  Megan Horneman: They were up two-tenths of a percent for the month, still growing over 2% at 2.6% on a year-over-year basis.
• 2:10
  Megan Horneman: So these are things that are still straining the consumer.
• 2:13
  Megan Horneman: And these are also some of the sticky things like services growing three-tenths of a percent or up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis.
• 2:21
  Megan Horneman: These are some of the things the Fed's watching very closely because it's difficult for them to control this.
• 2:27
  Megan Horneman: This is one inflation data.
• 2:28
  Megan Horneman: We'll get some more tomorrow.
• 2:30
  Megan Horneman: But one of the other things that's kept a lot of volatility in this equity market continues to be this back and forth with the tariffs, we've got some retaliatory measures.
• 2:38
  Megan Horneman: Today we have some White House pressure again.
• 2:40
  Megan Horneman: So we'll be back this week with, if we need to, an impact report if there's more bigger market moves.
• 2:46
  Megan Horneman: But right now, the focus today is on the inflation.
• 2:49
  Megan Horneman: The focus the rest of this week will be also on some of the other inflation indicators.
• 2:53
  Megan Horneman: That's all we have today.
• 2:55
  Megan Horneman: If you'd like a history of our podcast, you go to marketswithmegan.
• 2:57
  Megan Horneman: fm.
• 2:58
  Megan Horneman: Thank you,