CPI

Several important economic updates due today, among which CPI, Empire Index, Industrial Production and UMichigan consumer confidence. There is a small QE Lite Pomo today closing at 11 am. The Stress Tests are released at noon. Expect more European headlines to whip the EURUSD, and thus ES, around.

It appears that the AARP does have a powerful lobby. Not even an hour after we posted the AARP's stern displeasure with the revelation that the appropriately named Chained-CPI adjustment would cut into Social Security, and Nancy Pelosi is already making waves with her shock that this proposal was in fact among the options being discussed: "Before Thursday's White House meeting on the budget, congressional Democrats said they planned to remind President Obama not to leave his party and base behind. The Democrats' testiness followed reports that the White House was proposing to alter Social Security and Medicare as part of a potential debt-ceiling deal with Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., planned in the meeting to “express his feeling that we haven’t been kept in the loop,” according to a senior Democratic aide who asked not to be identified so he could speak candidly about the friction between the president and Democratic congressional leaders. That feeling is shared by many Democrats, irked not just by the potential cuts, but by the White House’s failure to float it to Democratic lawmakers before they learned of the proposal through media. “Good politics starts with good communication, and I think they should have come and talked to us about the direction, particularly when it’s the social contract and we feel so strongly about it,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md." That's interesting: so despite our observation well over two weeks ago that the CPI adjustment would have a major adverse impact on entitlement NPV and that it has been discussed for quite a while now, somehow nobody bothered to explain to the Democrats on the Hill that the immediate consequence of this action would have been a massive change in Social Security dues? Just how clueless and mathematically challenged is everyone over in Congress? As for the Democrats' claim that these discussions "only now" appeared on the scene, we leave that to those far more gullible than us to swallow.

While it is unclear what precisely has given Obama confidence to announce that his meeting with congressional leaders on deficit reduction and the debt limit was "very constructive" one thing is very likely: it involved the change of the definition of CPI. As we reported some time ago, one of the serious proposals to deal with the deficit situation is to make a revolutionary actuarial adjustment and change the way the actual definition of inflation. As we reported: "Lawmakers are considering changing how the Consumer Price Index is calculated, a move that could save perhaps $220 billion and represent significant progress in the ongoing federal debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks. According to congressional aides familiar with the discussions, the proposal would shift how the Consumer Price Index is calculated to reflect how people tend to change spending patterns when prices increase. For example, consumers tend to drive less when gas prices increase dramatically.  Such a move is widely seen by economists as resulting in a slower rise in inflation." Today the WSJ's Damian Paletta follows up on this ludicrous yet serious proposal: "One proposal in the budget talks that is getting a serious look from all sides would switch the government’s way of measuring inflation and delivering a big impact on tax, spending, and entitlement programs. How big? It could save roughly $300 billion over 10 years. That big. The idea of using this different measure of inflation, known as a “chained” consumer price index, has won support from numerous deficit-reduction commissions as well as many liberal and conservative economists." Yet reminding everyone that there is no such thing as a free lunch in finance, the "biggest savings—an estimated $112 billion—would be from slowing the growth in the cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security beneficiaries." Sure enough someone is unhappy. Enter the AARP which is already screaming, justifiably, bloody murder should the administration proceed with what will be an outright slashing of Social Security obligations. "AARP will not accept any cuts to Social Security as part of a deal to
pay the nation’s bills,” said Rand.  “Social Security did not cause the
deficit, and it should not be cut to reduce a deficit it did not cause." Did Obama's war with America's seniors just enter Defcon 1?

A few months ago we reported on Goldman's proposal to change the definition of GDP to make the US economy appear to be growing faster than it really is. So far, it has not caught on, as even the revised definition will soon confirm a contraction. But that proposal appears to have given Joe Biden some ideas, who now has taken the Fukushima approach to (sur)reality, whereby one merely changes the terms of data measurement when the data does not cooperate. Enter the revised CPI: "Lawmakers are considering changing how the Consumer Price Index is calculated, a move that could save perhaps $220 billion and represent significant progress in the ongoing federal debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks." And because nobody has an issue with the current artificial hedonic and otherwise adjustments to the CPI which always reflect a far lower increase in prices than what is actually happening, here comes the government with another idea to make inflation appear to be rising even slower: "According to congressional aides familiar with the discussions, the proposal would shift how the Consumer Price Index is calculated to reflect how people tend to change spending patterns when prices increase. For example, consumers tend to drive less when gas prices increase dramatically.  Such a move is widely seen by economists as resulting in a slower rise in inflation. That would impact an array of federal programs that are linked to CPI including the Social Security program and income tax brackets set by the federal government. The proposal could lower federal spending by around $220 billion over the next decade, based on calculations by last year's White House deficit commission, which recommended the change as part of its final report." What does this mean practically? SImply said, the worst of all worlds for the US middle class: "[the proposal] would likely lead to both lower benefits paid to seniors and higher taxes paid by most people who pay federal income tax." We expect this last-ditch accounting gimmick will be implemented shortly, and the broader American population will not care one bit that it's purchasing power will see a step function drop yet again in the ongoing crusade to destroy the dollar.

CPI, Industrial production, more Chinese Treasury outflows, and a few surveys.

April consumer inflation rose 0.4% in April, in line with expectations, and 3.2% year over year. This is a modest drop in the monthly increase from 0.5% in March, while the Y/Y number was an increase from 2.7% to 3.2%. The energy index posted another increase in April as the gasoline index continued to rise, the latter accounting for almost half of the seasonally adjusted all items increase. For those who eat in addition to use energy, the BLS had this to say: "The food index increased as well in April, though the 0.5 percent rise in the food at home index was the smallest increase this year." Still: "Within the food at home component, the indexes for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, for dairy and related products, and for nonalcoholic beverages all posted notable increases, though the fresh vegetables index did decline following recent advances." Core CPI rose for 0.2%: the third such increase in 4 months. Overall, CPI continues to be far less than indicated by the MIT BPP.

Just two reports today: CPI and Confidence, both expected to paint worse picture and thus should be favorable to stocks.

And again we learn from the Department of Truth that core inflation is non-existent. Of course, this number is not applicable to anyone who actually has to buy things. According to the BLS CPI came in line with expectations, and unchanged from last month, at 0.5%. CPI ex food and energy of 0.1% actually declined from last month's 0.2%, and was below consensus of 0.2%. From the release: "The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.5 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment.  Gasoline and food prices continued to rise and together accounted for almost three quarters of the seasonally adjusted all items increase in March. The gasoline index posted its ninth consecutive increase and has now risen 14.4 percent over the last three months. The household energy index rose as well, with advances in the fuel oil and electricity indexes more than offsetting a decline in the index for natural gas. The food at home index continued to accelerate in March, rising 1.1 percent as all six major grocery store food groups increased." What this means is that core CPI will likely not get high enough to derail the option for QE3 if and when it comes around some time in Q3.

If Citi is right, and it is, and CPI comes high, and it will, looks for some fireworks in FX following the announcement of CPI in 5 minutes: "Market is most sensitive to core CPI reading as that is the Fed's target (at least the Fed majority's). Consensus and Citi are at 0.2%m/m  on core, but there are many more at 0.1% than at 0.3%.  Given how yields have moved in recent days the pain is on an 0.3% m/m rather than an 0.1%. The 0.3% would probably cause fear that the Fed will raise rates sooner rather than later while the 0.1% would be in line with a Fed hick in 2012. High core CPI would be a risk off event but USDJPY would see some upside support. If equities sell off it would be an added USD positive, since market is short USD and long risk, and rates unwind would lead to USD-supportive position cutting. On headline expectations very much in 0.4/0.5% range. A big overshoot on headline and core at expected 0.2% would probably have a modest and possibly temporary affect on US rates."

Following China's blistering CPI which came as leaked at 5.4%, today we get our own number which is known by only very select traders on Wall Street. We will also get the Empire Index, TIC treasury flow data, Industrial production and capacity utilization, UMichigan consumer sentiment, a couple of Fed speeches and of course, POMO.

Yesterday we reported that China just hiked its fuel prices for only the second time in 2011. Now, again courtesy of Business China, we find that something far more important to the Chinese population is about to surge in price: beer. "The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, has hauled in representatives from China’s four largest beer makers (China Resources Snow Breweries Co. Ltd., Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd., Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co. Ltd. and the China unit of Belgian Anheuser-Busch InBev NV ) for talks over their price hikes, as it looks to tackle public concerns over soaring inflation. " Since February, the cost of beer production has risen by RMB 94 per ton, which explains the beer makers’ unanimous price hikes,” the person said. Since January, CR Snow Breweries, China’s largest brewer by volume, has raised prices by more than 10% in Sichuan, Liaoning and Anhui provinces, where it enjoys a dominant position in the market. Tsingtao Brewery also hiked prices of several products in the following months by an average of 10%, the company announced earlier." This follows news from the China Securities Journal that Chinese CPI, which recently dipped again below 5%, is about to have a breakaway month in March. "Chinese consumer prices are likely to rise more
than 5% year-on-year in each month in the second quarter and the
inflation rate may even surpass 6% in some months, the official China
Securities Journal warned in a front page editorial published Wednesday." And while energy is energy is a major component of Chinese CPI, it is food that is the main variable: as was discussed previously on Zero Hedge, whereas food is merely 7.8% of total CPI, in China it is about 30% (this is before the recent CPI weighting adjustment). Which means a desperate China is now forced to resort to that ultimately last ditch attempt at covering surging prices- Shrinkage "Resigned to rising raw materials prices, brewers are figuring out new ways to offset higher costs. “One way of countering the costs is to reduce beer capacity by as much as 100 milliliters for a 660-ml bottle,” said the head of a local beer company." Surely, the dumb local peasantry will never figure this cheap trick out.

Initial claims for the past week came at 385K on expectations of 388K, just slightly lower from last week's upward revised 401,000 (and imagine what it would look like if we had a 4 handle pre-revision last week: naturally the BLS can not take that risk). Continuing claims were at 3.706 MM, an 80K drop from the prior week, and 44K below expectations. Naturally the prior number was also revised higher from 3,771K to 3,786K but this near-100% revision bias is no news to anyone by now. About 60k Americans were added to EUCs and extended claims in the week ended February 26. At this point it is safe to say that nobody knows how many 99ers are rolling off on a weekly basis from the EUC/Extended claims ranks. And elsewhere the CPI confirmed yesterday's PPI data, in showing that inflation continues to rise for everyone, expect those who don't use energy and eat. CPI increased by 0.5% sequentially in February on expectations of 0.4%, and 2.1% Y/Y.  This time even the core CPI increased by more than expectations, rising by 0.2% while consensus called for a 0.1% rise. From the report: "Though the seasonally adjusted increase in the all items index was broad-based, the energy index was once again the largest contributor. The gasoline index continued to rise, and the index for household energy turned up in February with all of its components posting increases. Food indexes also continued to rise in February, with sharp increases in the indexes for fresh vegetables and meats contributing to a 0.8 percent increase in the food at home index, the largest since July 2008. The index for all items less food and energy rose in February as well. Most of its major components posted increases, including the indexes for shelter, new vehicles, medical care, and airline fares. The apparel index was one of the few to decline."

Oh this will be fun...

And so the sunset of the QE2 inspired Golden Age begins: From JPM's Michael Ferolli: "We are revising down our projection for the annual growth rate of real GDP in Q1 from 4.0% to 3.5%. Prior to this week, first quarter growth had already been tracking a little soft relative to our forecast. In particular, consumers stumbled a bit to start the year, and while we expect them to pick up the pace some in coming months, the recent rise in energy prices poses a notable headwind. Most cyclical indicators remain quite favorable, and the unwind of adverse weather effects could support next quarter growth; for these reasons we are maintaining our second quarter growth forecast of 4%. If energy prices remain at their elevated level, however, this would pose a challenge to our outlook for next quarter. Another downside risk to Q2 GDP growth comes from the federal government sector, which could see a faster move to austerity than is in our current forecast. We've also revised our headline CPI forecast, particularly in Q1 where we now see the CPI increasing at a 4% annual rate. Below is our updated forecast spreadsheet."

Initial claims jump 410K in the last week, on expectations of 400k, confirming last week's upwardly revised 385K print was "snow" derived. On the inflationary front, CPI jumped 0.4%, higher than expectations of 0.3%, previous 0.5%. The irrelevant CPI ex food and energy was up 0.2%, higher than consensus and the prior print of 0.1%.