Two full weeks into January, most of the latest data reflects key trends in December. Inflation eats into wages: Inflation increased modestly in December, primarily from higher energy prices and from big increases in health care insurance. Average weekly earnings did not see real growth for the first time in 32 months as a result … Continued
A replay of the 2020 Cox Automotive Industry Insights Breakfast, held in Detroit on Monday, is available below. Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke and his team shared their insights on how the automotive industry fared in 2019 and what they see coming in 2020. Vince Zappa, president of Clutch Technologies, and Sonya Harbaugh, co-founder and … Continued
Job growth is slowing, wage gains are not accelerating, and consumers are pulling back on spending as evidenced by disappointing December car sales. Job creation slows: December saw job creation slow down relative to the much bigger gain in November. Even with the smaller gain, both the headline and the underemployment rates are now at … Continued
We ended 2019 with mostly positive data. Home sales continue to be strong as both new home sales and pending home sales increased in November. But news starting 2020 has been less so. Wary consumers: Consumer confidence failed to see improvement in December, but it isn’t declining either. The main concern is that consumers do … Continued
While we saw progress on trade agreements, new economic data last week highlight concerns about the bedrock of the U.S. economy –the consumer. Trade agreements closer: Last week saw progress on trade uncertainty as a supplementary “protocol” was agreed to by the U.S., Mexico and Canada to get the changes Democrats wanted to see in the … Continued
The Fed officially left short-term rate policy unchanged at the conclusion of their December meeting today, which was the last meeting in 2019. After three rate cuts this year, the Fed seems set on a steady course in 2020 barring a major change in the economy. The Fed’s official statement acknowledged that economic growth is … Continued
Jonathan Smoke, Chief Economist at Cox Automotive, provides an update on the Key Trends that, earlier in the year, were predicted to have the greatest impact on the automotive industry in 2019. The Economy Economic growth has been revised slightly downward from 2.6% to 2.3% GDP for 2019 and is expected to be less than … Continued
The Fed officially cut the short-term rate policy by a quarter-point, citing slowing economic growth both globally and domestically. This was the third cut this year, so rate policy is back to the range we had in the spring of 2018 before the June 2018 increase. As in September, the decision was not unanimous, as two … Continued
Economic growth slowed in the second quarter and is likely to be much slower in the back half of the year compared with the first half of the year. Tame inflation: Inflation has been tame, mainly as a result of lower prices for food and energy, but now some of the consumer surplus provided by … Continued
The stock market failed to make it four straight weeks of gains as the UAW strike at GM, turmoil in the Middle East, floods in Texas, and global economic weakness collectively dampened moods. The Fed also made news every day, and, when the Fed has to take action, it’s not usually because things are looking … Continued