Know The Difference Minute

Nobody was expecting the Fed to change rates, so they met expectations.

Japan just ended a nearly two-decade term of negative rates. Are negative rates the carrot or the stick? 

New retail figures for February arrived this morning. Up a seasonally adjusted 0.6% , but under by most estimates. 

Big piece in the New York Times regarding how our cars are reporting bad driving to insurance companies. 

The very slim chance of a rate cut next week disappeared this morning when a fresh Consumer Price Index arrived 

Target announced a paid membership program along the lines of Amazon Prime and Walmart Plus.

Credit scores for American consumers are down for the first time in a decade. Don’t be surprised. 

A Gallup study revealed 79% of Americans don't trust companies to use AI responsibly. 

Think Wendy’s surge pricing meltdown will be covered in business school some day?  

You didn't know then what you know now. Hindsight tells us what played out well, but foresight is what's needed when it comes to investing.

Plenty of jitters leading up to Nvidia’s earnings report. Was the Genie out of the bottle? 

The average price of a new vehicle was just over $47,000 last month, down 2.6% from December. Meanwhile, 2.6 million are sitting on lots. 

Walmart is going to acquire Vizio for $2.3 billion . It’s a tie-up that will combine America’s largest retailer with a network of smart TV’s.

Some major companies in the S&P 500 have said it’s becoming increasingly clear that Americans are under stress, which could cause consumers to eventually curb their spending. 

One extra zero in an earnings statement caused a $2 billion swing. 

On the way to a soft landing, inflation was supposed to be heading south. Today’s CPI report had other ideas.

Financial assets were the big driver, growing over 50% as they invested in equities and mutual funds. With longer time horizons, they tended to pick riskier investments. 

Coming this fall. 15 different networks with the 4 major professional sports leagues including the NBA, MLB and NHL. Also in: WNBA, NASCAR, NCAA and FIFA World Cup. Networks confirmed include ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC, ACC, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten, TNT, TBS and truTV.  

The Fed will approach the question of when to reduce interest rates carefully, says Chairman Powell. When will enough be enough?

Producing content is expensive. Is borrowing a login content stealing ? These streamers think so. 

Developing AI is expensive. To pay for it, Google spent $2.1 billion on severance last year laying off more than 12,000. And just this month, its already spent $700 million on employee severance. 

After base, bonuses, and stock awards, some Walmart Superstore managers can make over $400,000 .  

It’s clear economist's consensus whiffed on this one. Predictions were in the 2% range but instead, came it at 3.3%.  O ff from Q3’s 4.9% but still another sign that the widely predicted recession was sitting this one out while the American consumer is not. 

Delinquency rates on credit cards have climbed 3 straight years. After the friendship bracelets are put away, the credit card statements start showing up. 

If there’s any good news, this is already leaked data. Unfortunately, it’s all rolled up into one big dataset and sitting on the dark web. For sale.