Banking & Financial Services

In a Nutshell: Are We Seeing The First Signs Of A Slowing Economy?

GDP rose 6.5% in the still recovering second quarter, below the 8.4% consensus, but above its pre-pandemic peak in Q4 2019. Notably, declining inventories shaved 1.13 percentage points off GDP growth. This was not as much as the 2.62 inventory… more

In a Nutshell: Inflation Is Getting Real

Inflation is making headlines all over the country, but the mainstream media is not being honest about the true severity of the crisis. We are being told that the official rate of inflation is still in single digits, but what we aren’t… more

In a Nutshell: Just Too Much Cash?

A prolonged drop in U.S. Treasury yields is catching bond and fixed income traders as well as most investors by surprise. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield dropped below 1.3% on July 7th and fell further overnight to 1.25% (despite real… more

In a Nutshell: Strong Jobs Report Despite Trouble Finding Workers

On July 2nd The Street received the jobs data for the month of June, and those numbers did not disappoint. The Labor Department announced that job growth accelerated in June (to 850,000); however, the unemployment rate was unchanged as uncounted… more

In a Nutshell: A Very Tight & Expensive Housing Environment

Housing statistics confirm that houses available to purchase are extremely limited, so the volume of sales continues declining. While rapidly rising prices of lumber and other components may have impacted the reduced number of housing starts, there appears to be… more

DED Awards $15.8 Million to Missouri Development Projects

The Missouri Department of Economic Development it will be spreading $15.8 million across 38 different community development projects across the state. The focus is to improve infrastructure such as damaged streets and drainage improvements, but the projects vary across the… more

In a Nutshell: What’s Up With Our Dollar?

Why has little attention been given to the rather sudden 3% exchange pullback for the dollar (versus the utilized basket of currencies)? During the past 12 months the cumulative dollar value drop has been over 10%! Currency exchange rates are… more

In a Nutshell: Higher Interest Rates on The Way!

Inflation exploded higher during April. Base effects added to the year-on-year figures had only a little to do with the unexpected inflation jump from March to April of this year. Instead, blame a combination of government stimulus, reflation, bottlenecks and… more

In a Nutshell: Rapidly Rising Prices Increase Many Concerns

Rising prices are intensifying inflation realities throughout the economy. A growing number of companies are warning that supply shortages and increasing demand will result in higher prices. In fact, tight inventories have already generated price surges for raw materials, ranging… more

In a Nutshell: It’s Costly to Listen to Negative “News”

This past week the financial media highlighted one guru after another calling for a market correction to the tune of anywhere from 5% to 20%! They cited “peak earnings” comparisons, rising inflation data, and the inevitability of the Fed having… more