"Since the Israel-Hamas war began two years ago, development within Area C has grown five times faster than at any period over the past 20 years, driven largely by new settlements" (www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...)

In Q1 and Q2 of 2025, U.S. business investment in computer equipment registered the biggest back-to-back increases since 2000. Excluding computer equipment, business investment actually fell in Q2. Underscores the extent to which the AI boom is sucking up capital (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

U.S. consumers are pulling back on discretionary services spending. Outlays on transportation services, food services and accommodation, financial services and other services—a category that includes net foreign travel—all fell in May, extending weakness in Q1 (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

Market-based core PCE price index rose 2.2% in the 12 months through March, marking the smallest increase in four years (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

Several banks slashed U.S. economic forecasts Friday. UBS said they "expect U.S. imports from the rest of the world fall more than 20% over our forecast horizon, mostly in the next several quarters, bringing imports as a share of GDP back to pre-1986 levels" (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

U.S. nonfinancial corporate profit margins widened in the fourth quarter to the highest levels in more than three years, suggesting companies may have plenty of room to absorb higher costs from tariffs without passing them onto consumers (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

Cost of groceries excluding eggs fell in February by the most since 2020, according to this morning's CPI report (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

New housing under construction in the U.S. fell again in January, putting it back below the 2006 peak for the first time since August 2021 (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

This from @skandaamarnath.bsky.social's CPI preview turned out to be pretty apt (today's report showed core goods prices excluding used cars did indeed fall in December, and now markets are back to pricing in one or more rate cuts in the first half of 2025)

Fed officials are homing in on "market-based" inflation, which strips out a bunch of imputed prices like portfolio management fees, is much closer to their 2% target than the more widely-followed "core" measure, and hasn't turned higher in recent months (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

The amount of time it's taking to find a job in the U.S. is on the rise again, with 40% of the unemployed now in search mode for at least 15 weeks. That kind of number was rare before the 2008 crisis. "Knowledge workers" in particular appear to be struggling (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)

Rising stock prices are really starting to have a substantial impact on the Fed's preferred inflation gauge via the portfolio management and investment advice services component of the index (www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)