Rate hike anticipation builds; US inflation continues surge. US consumer prices, as shown in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose 7.5% in January compared with a year ago, the biggest jump in 40 years. The increase was broad-based, with energy, food prices and rents leading the surge, but also some alarming increases in categories not seen before, such as medical-care services, which has a much larger weight in the PCE deflator – the Fed’s preferred price gauge. All told, the readings showed that inflation has moved well beyond the ongoing disruptions in global supply chains. Excluding food and energy, prices rose a still-robust 6% while rent readings reached a 30-year high. With no signs of an inflation slowdown on the horizon, financial markets immediately began to price in additional Fed hikes. Futures traders are now pricing a 50-basis point hike at the March Fed meeting. There will be plenty of opportunity for the Fed to hike; it meets three times before July.

Our take: Last week’s inflation data, following the string of tight labor-market readings last week, may be the nudge the Fed needs to opt for a 50-basis point hike in March. Of special note, housing costs are rapidly increasing compared to previous years. This component to the inflation mix is expected to keep overall inflation indices high in the coming months. Given last week’s high inflation reading, the Fed is now more likely to prefer a more aggressive path of rate hikes; but will it hike as much as seven times in a row as some are predicting? No. Why? As the Fed begins its hiking spree, it will be very sensitive to how its rate hikes impact economic growth, preferring to nudge rates slowly higher, allowing markets and the economy to slowly adjust and avoiding a squashing of positive economic momentum.  In the meantime, Inflation will get worse before it improves, likely peaking at roughly 7.8% in next month’s report.

Looking further out, we suspect inflation will fall to somewhere near 6.5% in Q2, assuming energy prices ease off their highs, and supply bottlenecks don’t re-intensify. Still, risks tilt to the upside. Potential hazards currently on the radar include an escalation of the Russia – Ukraine geopolitical conflict, which could push oil prices beyond $100 per barrel; a continuation of the rising housing rents beyond their current three-decade high; supply-chain bottlenecks intensifying again; and price pressures spreading to a broader set of services categories as businesses pass along higher wage costs. Any combination of these risks could push average CPI inflation close to 5% for the year as a whole – substantially higher than most expect. The dynamic would prompt the Fed to be more aggressive in pulling back the easy-money party punchbowl.

Ignore consumer-driven recession warnings at your peril.  The gap between gauges of depressed consumer sentiment and the more optimistic consumer confidence measures have widened sharply recently. Consumer sentiment, an accounting of people’s feelings toward their current financial health, the health of the economy in the short-term, and the prospects for longer-term economic growth, deteriorated in early February to its lowest level in a decade, as rising inflation and falling real incomes, dampen hopes for a positive future despite a sharp drop in Omicron infections. Consumer confidence, on the other hand, measures how optimistic or pessimistic consumers are regarding their expected financial situation. Recent gauges of consumer confidence indicated a healthy resistance to the impact of Omicron; no surprise, given a hot jobs market and employers ready and willing to raise wages.

Our take: Ordinarily, the diverging confidence and sentiment measures signal a looming recession, as less confident consumers pull back on spending. But perhaps not this time around. The ebbing of the Omicron wave, and policy makers’ commitment to curbing inflation, will increasingly reassure consumers, who alone account for 70% of America’s economic activity. At the end of the day, consumers’ contribution to economic growth will likely ease over the next few quarters but will still be enough to avoid the risk of a broader economic stall, even with Fed hikes in the mix.

A stealth driver of inflation is intensifying. Of particular interest to a sub-set of our readers, the trend of rising rents is accelerating, becoming a key contributor to rising inflation. Price increases in both primary residences and owners’ equivalent rent, the amount of rent that would have to be paid to substitute a currently owned house as a rental property, continue their rise, and likely have more room to run. Popular projections have both measures moving into the vicinity of 6% year-over-year later this year, from 3.8% and 4.1%, respectively.  The accelerations have been concentrated in the South in the wake of the pandemic – a consequence of remote work and a more rapid recovery in employment.

Bond yields bore the brunt of inflation hysteria. The US is not alone in seeing sovereign bond yields rising sharply. As an example, most of the German yield curve is now suddenly positive, after wallowing in negative territory as recently as the Christmas holiday. Yields on the periphery of Europe have risen sharply since the European Central Bank signaled that its leaning toward a rate hike at its February meeting. The Bank of Japan recently announced that it would buy unlimited quantities of 10-year Japanese government bonds at 0.25% to enforce its yield curve control policy as yields rose to their highest levels since 2016. Elsewhere, emerging market central banks may be closer to the end of their rate hiking cycles, having moved early and aggressively in 2021. Russia, Brazil and Chile may be nearing a peak in rates. Overall, the scenario gives the Fed more confidence to hike, and soon.