(RTTNews) - A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back by more than expected in the week ended April 11th.
(RTTNews) - A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back by more than expected in the week ended April 11th.
franckreporter/iStock via Getty Images By James Knightley, Chief International Economist, US Inflation expectations remain tolerable The Federal Reserve can’t do anything to ease the energy supply shock. Instead, its role is to ensure that inflation expectations remain contained, and, for now, that seems to be the case. Long-term consumer inflation expectations are tolerable, being a full percenta...
franckreporter/iStock via Getty Images By James Knightley, Chief International Economist, US Inflation expectations remain tolerable The Federal Reserve can’t do anything to ease the energy supply shock. Instead, its role is to ensure that inflation expectations remain contained, and, for now, that seems to be the case. Long-term consumer inflation expectations are tolerable, being a full percentage point below the 4.4% figure hit in the wake of the 'Liberation Day' tariffs 12 months ago. Meanwhile, break-even inflation rates on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities have not shifted to a worrying degree – the 2Y implied rate is at 2.9%, 5Y at 2.7% and 10Y at 2.4%. In January, the averages were 2.5%, 2.4% and 2.3% respectively. As such, the central bank, households, and financial markets appear to believe that inflation is likely to be transitory. While we expect US headline inflation to soon breach 4% on higher motor fuel and airline fare costs, we certainly don’t think we are in for a repeat of 2022, when inflation got within touching distance of 10%, and the Fed had to hike the policy rate by 525bp. That is primarily because the supply shock is not as broad as the pandemic-related supply chain stresses in 2022, focused on motor and aviation fuel. At the same time, we don’t have the same sort of demand impetus that would risk a broader, more persistent inflation story. US companies have not been able to pass on the $25bn per month cost of tariffs to consumers in a meaningful way, with core goods consumer prices rising little more than 1% year-on-year. This gives us reason to doubt they will be able to pass on higher energy and distribution costs outside of airline fares. Furthermore, US natural gas prices have been falling, suggesting that developments in the Middle East will be less impactful on US utility costs than in Asia and Europe. High energy costs likely to be demand destructive In terms of activity, the differences with 2022 are even starker. The economy...
RudyBalasko/iStock via Getty Images The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index stood at 26.7, compared to 18.1 in March and against the consensus of 12.0, according to data released by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve on Thursday. Manufacturing activity in the region continued to grow overall, according to the firms responding to the April Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey. Business conditions: 40.8 v...
RudyBalasko/iStock via Getty Images The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index stood at 26.7, compared to 18.1 in March and against the consensus of 12.0, according to data released by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve on Thursday. Manufacturing activity in the region continued to grow overall, according to the firms responding to the April Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey. Business conditions: 40.8 vs. 40.0 in March Capex: 35.2 vs. 25.8 prior Employment: -5.1 vs. 0.8 prior New orders: 33.0 vs. 8.6 prior Prices paid: 59.3 vs. 44.7 prior Almost 33% of the firms reported increases, exceeding the 6% reporting decreases; 62% of the firms reported no change in current activity. The current shipments index rose 12 points to 34.0, while the index for current new orders jumped 24 points to 33.0. Almost 41% of the firms reported increases in new orders (up from 30% last month), 8% reported decreases (down from 22%), and 49% reported no change (up from 48%). More than 70% of the firms reported no change in employment levels this month, but the share reporting decreases (15%) exceeded the share reporting increases (10%). In this month's special questions, the firms were asked about changes in wage rates and compensation packages over the past three months, as well as their updated expectations for changes in various input and labor costs for the current year. The firms continue to expect overall growth over the next six months, although most future indicators moved down. More on U.S. Economy Economy remains resilient amid energy price shocks – Bespoke’s Paul Hickey Most U.S. regions exhibit 'slight to modest growth,' Fed's Beige Book says
CACI International ( CACI ) announced on Thursday that it has been awarded a base year technology task order with four option years valued at up to $231M, continuing nearly two decades of service to the U.S. Special Operations Command. CACI will deliver accurate, near-real-time satellite communications support, providing program visibility to the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic. U...
CACI International ( CACI ) announced on Thursday that it has been awarded a base year technology task order with four option years valued at up to $231M, continuing nearly two decades of service to the U.S. Special Operations Command. CACI will deliver accurate, near-real-time satellite communications support, providing program visibility to the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic. Under this latest task order, CACI will offer systems engineering, network and software engineering, systems certification, technology evaluation, integration and testing, training, maintenance, logistics, and lifecycle sustainment management to provide warfighters with high-quality equipment when and where they need it most, anywhere in the world. CACI +0.24% premarket to $533. Source: Press Release More on CACI International CACI International Rightly Disputes Its Industry Classification: Oddly, That's Bullish CACI International Inc (CACI) Presents at Bank of America Global Industrials Conference 2026 Transcript CACI International Inc (CACI) Presents at 2026 Cantor Global Technology & Industrial Growth Conference Transcript CACI announces $306M task order from Defense Logistics Agency CACI gets $287M contract from U.S. Army
Nestea06/iStock via Getty Images I’ve been covering the semiconductor industry for a while now, and while I still think the VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( SMH ) is the best way to play the whole industry in one ticker, there are a couple of individual stocks in that ETF that are worth a look in their own right. Chief among them is Micron Technology ( MU ), which has been on a 530% bull run over the pa...
Nestea06/iStock via Getty Images I’ve been covering the semiconductor industry for a while now, and while I still think the VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( SMH ) is the best way to play the whole industry in one ticker, there are a couple of individual stocks in that ETF that are worth a look in their own right. Chief among them is Micron Technology ( MU ), which has been on a 530% bull run over the past 12 months but is still undervalued based on every metric I’ve seen. I’ve added it to my own portfolio, and over the past couple of weeks I’m up 20% on it. Micron sits in a unique position in the tech industry and is perhaps the best way to play the biggest bottleneck on the hardware side of that industry. I won’t beat around the bush here; I think Micron is going to hit at least $1,000 per share and might even be able to go above $1,200. Interested? I certainly was; let’s get into it. The Opportunity: Memory, American Style Boise, Idaho-based Micron’s business is pretty simple: it makes memory. Specifically, it designs and produces RAM or random-access memory, and DRAM or dynamic random-access memory. Those are the components every computer, from your smartphone to the most sophisticated supercomputers, needs to store and recall information. In the context of artificial intelligence, AI programs require vast amounts of memory hardware to store what they’ve learned and make inferences from their training data. And Micron is one of only three companies that dominate the global memory hardware market. The other two are Samsung ( SSNLF ) and SK hynix ( HXSCL ), both of which are South Korean. Micron is the lone American player in the space, and I will cover why that’s important shortly. But first I’d like to highlight one of Micron’s most notable partnerships, the AI hardware kingpin itself, Nvidia ( NVDA ). The memory chip in Nvidia’s Vera Rubin GPU or graphics processing unit, is Micron’s HBM4 which was designed specifically for the Vera Rubin. Micron Technology You’ll see...
Nestea06/iStock via Getty Images I’ve been covering the semiconductor industry for a while now, and while I still think the VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( SMH ) is the best way to play the whole industry in one ticker, there are a couple of individual stocks in that ETF that are worth a look in their own right. Chief among them is Micron Technology ( MU ), which has been on a 530% bull run over the pa...
Nestea06/iStock via Getty Images I’ve been covering the semiconductor industry for a while now, and while I still think the VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( SMH ) is the best way to play the whole industry in one ticker, there are a couple of individual stocks in that ETF that are worth a look in their own right. Chief among them is Micron Technology ( MU ), which has been on a 530% bull run over the past 12 months but is still undervalued based on every metric I’ve seen. I’ve added it to my own portfolio, and over the past couple of weeks I’m up 20% on it. Micron sits in a unique position in the tech industry and is perhaps the best way to play the biggest bottleneck on the hardware side of that industry. I won’t beat around the bush here; I think Micron is going to hit at least $1,000 per share and might even be able to go above $1,200. Interested? I certainly was; let’s get into it. The Opportunity: Memory, American Style Boise, Idaho-based Micron’s business is pretty simple: it makes memory. Specifically, it designs and produces RAM or random-access memory, and DRAM or dynamic random-access memory. Those are the components every computer, from your smartphone to the most sophisticated supercomputers, needs to store and recall information. In the context of artificial intelligence, AI programs require vast amounts of memory hardware to store what they’ve learned and make inferences from their training data. And Micron is one of only three companies that dominate the global memory hardware market. The other two are Samsung ( SSNLF ) and SK hynix ( HXSCL ), both of which are South Korean. Micron is the lone American player in the space, and I will cover why that’s important shortly. But first I’d like to highlight one of Micron’s most notable partnerships, the AI hardware kingpin itself, Nvidia ( NVDA ). The memory chip in Nvidia’s Vera Rubin GPU or graphics processing unit, is Micron’s HBM4 which was designed specifically for the Vera Rubin. Micron Technology You’ll see...
Zolak Initial jobless claims for the week ended April 11 declined by 11K to 207K vs. 213K consensus and 218K prior (revised from 219K), according to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday. The four-week moving average was 209,750, an increase of 500 from the prior week's average of 209,250, which was revised down from 209,500. The data continues to portray a relatively stable la...
Zolak Initial jobless claims for the week ended April 11 declined by 11K to 207K vs. 213K consensus and 218K prior (revised from 219K), according to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday. The four-week moving average was 209,750, an increase of 500 from the prior week's average of 209,250, which was revised down from 209,500. The data continues to portray a relatively stable labor market, continuing the narrative of a low-fire/low-hire environment. In the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, issued on Wednesday, many businesses appeared hesitant to make big expansion plans due to uncertainty clouding the economic outlook. In the same vein, they're also reluctant to let go of the workers they have. Continuing claims for the week ended April 4 increased to 1.818M from 1.787M in the prior week (revised from 1.794M). The most recent data slightly exceeded the 1.810M consensus. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% for the week ended April 4, unchanged from the earlier week's unrevised rate, the Department of Labor said Thursday. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs on an unadjusted basis was 213,873 in the week ended April 11, an increase of 12,116 from the prior week. Seasonal factors expected an increase of 23,749 from the previous week. More on the US Economy Most U.S. regions exhibit 'slight to modest growth,' Fed's Beige Book says U.S. import prices rise less than expected in March; export prices roughly in line Against The Odds: U.S. Is Relatively Resilient Despite Global Turmoil
E benefits from oil prices above $90 per barrel, boosting cash flow and supporting growth as elevated prices strengthen its global upstream operations outlook.
E benefits from oil prices above $90 per barrel, boosting cash flow and supporting growth as elevated prices strengthen its global upstream operations outlook.