Tag Archives: BLS

July 2022 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – Back to Basics Tax Return PLANNING – Legacy Health Coverage – Feds Pickle – Yield Curve Inverts – By John Kvale CFA, CFP

Posted on August 1, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our July 2022 … Financial Planning and Capital Market Update!

If you are too busy to read, feel free to listen as we describe our post and thoughts in friendly podcast audio format as well as Video!

Newbies –

We like to articulate our thoughts and review on a Monthly basis our Financial Planning Tips, Capital Markets thoughts and current events!

Hope you enjoy!

July 2022 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Back to Basics Series – Income Tax PLANNING

In our final fun “Back to Basics” review we discuss Tax PLANNING….

From the post:

Coincidentally, the most important part of Tax Planning is the second word in the subject, Planning!

As we individual or corporate tax payers traverse the tax year, it’s important to take note of unusual events that may be occurring. We’re certainly not saying you have to worry about this every minute of the day, but should you have an unusual increase in income, or decrease in income, this should be thought about before the end of the year for your tax planning.

Later in the post we discuss the key items in reviewing your return as well….. in step by step format!

Legacy Health Coverages

After running into several situations of legacy health care options for long time former employees… Here in this post we outline the possibilities of bridge Health Coverage from legacy companies and how fantastic of an option this can be…

In almost every situation, the key is these plans are not easily discovered. In order to find out if you have an option, it’s best to dig out contact information from HR of your old employer and reach out to them directly.

This is an expense to your former employer, so it would be expected not to receive multiple information regarding such a plan, but if available it could greatly help in bridging the gap for Medicare should we be in the situation of needing coverage before age 65. 

Capital Market Comments

Bond Market turns Upside Down – The R Word

After the second negative GDP print … see next note of Fed’s Pickle…. the bond market really began to price in the R Word…. Here in this post we discuss the inversion of long bonds to short and their meaning…

The Fed’s Pickle

In this post, BEFORE the actual GDP announcement, we discussed the Fed’s pickle, with a hot economy (CPI inflation holding tight) BUT an economy that is slowing …..even qualifying as the R Word now – Recession!

From the BLS release after our post :

Q2 2022 (Adv)-0.9%
Q1 2022 (3rd)-1.6%

Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022, following a decrease of 1.6 percent in the first quarter. The smaller decrease in the second quarter primarily reflected an upturn in exports and a smaller decrease in federal government spending.

The definition of recession is negative two quarters GDP….

Have a Great Day, Talk to You at the End of August!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Audio, Back to Basics, Clients/Clients Only, Economy, FOMC, General Financial Planning, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Podcast, Retirement Planning, Video

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CPI (Consumer Price Index) – Inflation Measure Holds High — FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) Green Light for Continued Tightening …

Posted on June 13, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Last Friday, June 10, 2022 the BLS (Bureau Of Labor Statistics) released their monthly data on the CPI (Consumer Price Index – Great Analysis Link Here) Most blunt measure of inflation — Ok lots of abbreviations but stick with us for the main takeaways…

For the record we called a possible top here, and while the increase of the CPI was only .4% than the prior month, it was NOT a deceleration YET…

Bottom Line Result

Cutting to the chase for those with little time – This hotter report will give the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) led by Jerome Powell a green light for further tightening faster – creating a faster slowing of the economy…

Quick FOMC Fed Funds Analysis – The Rate Increase Measure

(Take note once again, the first rate hikes on far left of chart took three years…. the next rate hike cycle ..one in middle right, took almost FOUR years… this one MAY be literally months… again this fits our thesis of headwinds came fast and are behind us (Look Forward not Back)– had to put that plug in while we were on the topic…)

CPI Analysis – What’s the Hold Up

With Owners Equivalent Rent/shelter being a very large portion of the CPI component…. its fast turn around is holding the CPI Up along with food inflation as well….

Note that far right movement up….

Oh and oil prices moving higher did not help either…..

Bottom line, continued FOMC rate increases, faster slowing of the economy, eventually… lower interest rates faster …..

Sorry for the heavy Monday, but wanted to get it out there to you guys as it helps us clarify as well!

Have a Great ” Sticky CPI Explained” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, FOMC, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments

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Capital Market thoughts, looking forward not back … FOMC chaired by Jerome Powell gave, now taking away, for the moment

Posted on May 11, 2022 by | Leave a comment

We don’t want to get too heavy and pound you with market thoughts, we know you’re getting enough of that from the “Market in Turmoil” like headlines, but we did want to give some explanations and let you know we are watching carefully as we have been on notice since December for a possible slowdown.

Look forward, not back

Economic reports such as today’s CPI (consumer price index) report is very much rearview looking, as such it’s sometime easy to forget that what’s most important is looking forward to what is going to happen next rather than backwards to what has happened. Yes it is much harder, and you do not know exactly what is going to happen … but you sure do not drive a vehicle looking continually in the rear view mirror – some humor on a dry subject… stay with me!

This is even more evident at the recent quick rise in interest rates, creating the headwinds to bonds. As noted here and again here in our posts (the second with even a special video) it’s highly likely and the probability is most that the headwinds for our fixed income investments are behind us. Once again looking forward, a slow down usually garners lower interest rates, exactly opposite to our slightly current and mostly rearview looking higher rates.

FOMC chaired by Powell gave and now takes

Over the past 18 months to two years the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) headed by Jerome Powell have taken very aggressive measures to stimulate the economy. Much of a stimulation, once the book is written may have over stimulated not only the economy but various asset prices. Their goal at this time is to slow inflation thereby doing a complete turnaround from their prior stance and taking away stimulus. This most likely will continue until they see evidence of slower inflation or lower employment. 

Higher rates are their main instrument of choice:

The FOMC waits for the reports such as the CPI to confirm their decisions, making for a lag in decision making and possibly longer decision-making, but they will eventually get there….

Finally, capital markets are certainly looking forward hence the sluggishness as they begin to price in a slowdown in full force. Eventually it’s very likely the FOMC will begin to see these clues as well!

Have a Great “Forward Looking” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Debt - Debt Management, Economy, FOMC, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments

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CPI – Consumer Price Index Survey Weights – C/O Another New Fantastic Research Service … Pew Research Organization

Posted on March 23, 2022 by | Leave a comment

With a tremendous amount of attention being paid to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Report (Consumer Price Index), we set off as part of our research to find an easy explanation of the breakdown of the index.

As a reminder the CPI index is a measure of inflation, hence the increase rhetoric not only in the public domain, but here as well, as we have spoken about it multiple times via analysis.

Back to the analysis, we found tons of information about the make up of the aforementioned CPI index, and a 100 plus items that make it up, but oddly it took us some time to find the true easy breakdown in larger macro elements of the CPI index.

Great news, a new approved non-copyright use from a fantastic new research service called Pew Research has been discovered. With approval from their public relations folks, we are happy to finally show you this wonderful graph that breaks the CPI index down into very easy and visually friendly context.

We will be referring back to this graph frequently, as some of our future commentary will be about this CPI index, and what it may look like in the future and what it means from a Federal Reserve/FOMC standpoint.

Here is the Pew Research Article

Have a Great “CPI Index Simplified” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, FOMC, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments

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Hot Jobs Report Puts Fire Under FOMC … Markets Take Notice

Posted on February 7, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Last Friday, January 4, 2022 the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) released the most recent Employment report for January.

With the report actually quadrupling employment hire expectations and large revisions upward to several prior reports, the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) is all but forced to begin raising rates soon!

BREAK IN – Interesting Weekend Research Findings – In two different areas of the financial world, this last weekend of researching this post a reminder that HUGE population adjustments occurred in this report. Here is an accidental finding from the St Louis research site showing the effects of the revisions in 2021…

From the report:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 467,000 in January, and the unemployment
rate was little changed at 4.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
today. Employment growth continued in leisure and hospitality, in professional and
business services, in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing.

Hot Report Puts FOMC on Go For Raising Rates

This HOT report, of 467k gains in employment, with expectations less than half of this number surprised market participants and the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) too, most certainly.

Adds in employment continue to help the Unemployment rate, once again giving the FOMC a green light of urgency to raise interest rates.

Market participant digestion of the rate raises will be interesting. Recall just a month or so ago, FOMC officials saw only one raise in 2022.

Also, recall our review of a large conference on March 24 of 2021 — yes 2021 almost one year ago…

Views: Number One From the Conference – Go Away FOMC – You Have Stayed Too Long

View number one and shared by every market related expert, the federal reserve is overstaying their welcome and should immediately stop asset purchases and begin talking about increasing rates. The main reason for these shared views are because asset levels have become inflated across almost all assets according to the experts and be continued purchases are no longer necessary given that capital markets are orderly.

Has the FOMC waited too long?

Next up, interest rates front run the FOMC!

Have a Great “Hot Unemployment Report Review” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, FOMC, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments

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Updated Comments on CPI (Consumer Price Index) aka Inflation … Is it Still Accelerating or Not?

Posted on February 2, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Last week the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) led by chair Jerome Powell at a regularly scheduled meeting and post meeting Video Interview, aggressively commented that they are going to wind down the monthly purchase of fixed instruments and plan on raising short term interest rates to thwart the inflationary pressures, mainly the backward looking CPI (Consumer Price Index) readings reported by the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statics) …. On a side note, ever notice how darn many acronyms are used in Economics….OK digressing…

We can debate the source of the inflationary pressures, supply chain, wages, oil or other matters…

On that note, here is the link to the BLS weighting of the CPI, it is a measly 320 lines long…. complicated to say the least…

But there are possible signs of a slowing already…

Certainly cannot see it in the year over year data below….

But the monthly change in CPI looks a little different…

Not making a call, just an observation… We will be watching!

Have a Great “CPI Updated” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Economy, Education, FOMC, Forecast, Interest Rates, Market Comments

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CPI (Consumer Price Index) Prints 6.8% Year over Year Increase, Quick Analysis on Likely Peak … Friday

Posted on December 10, 2021 by | Leave a comment

About three hours ago, the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) released their November 2021 report on CPI (Consumer Price Index) one of the broadest measures of Inflation…

If you have noticed your grocery basket smaller and more expensive, this is why….

This report has a ton of factors in it, as can be seen at the top of the chart from the BLS report, below….

The year over year print was 6.8% increase!

A very large portion of the CPI is Energy…

Have you noticed a LOWER bill to fill your tank lately?

The BLS report is lagging, below is a current Oil price, which is over 10% LOWER currently… hence the cheaper refills…

Very likely peak in CPI as measured by the BLS, next month which will be released in early January, we will take a peak and keep you updated…

Ok, another slightly heavy Friday, BUT the FOMC is watching this very closely and making decisions based on this increase, which may be peaking/lagging already…. Let’s stay tuned!

Have a Great “Friday CPI Analysis” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, Forecast, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments

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JOLTS – Job Openings and Labor Turnover – Continued Openings – Very Tight Hiring Currently

Posted on August 16, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Back in May of this year, we first took note (for this Economic Cycle) of the JOLTS data , a measure of Job Openings in the US Economy….At that time an all time high had been hit as measured by this chart again back from May 2021!

As an interesting side note, take notice of the yellow shaded area- this is the NBER Recession tracking (National Bureau of Economic Research) date of a recession… in May of 2021 we were still waiting for the NBER to state if the recession was over and the exact length…. NOT A GOOD measurement for investment as this was way old news even back in May of 2021! Ok digressing a little but thought it worth it…

JOLT Release as of August 13, 2021

Back in May we noted :

  • Tons of Jobs Available
  • Job Seekers Market
  • Tough on Employers
  • Could lead to higher wages (Inflation?)

Here is last weeks reading…

Another 20% higher print…extrapolating our comments above, 20% harder on all points!

Note once again the yellow bar is gone and the tiny little recession call made by the NBER- again certainly NOT a timing issue i.e. If you wait for them to tell you the recession is over you will likely be left in the dust!

For all those hiring …. patience, this will like cure its self much like our Lumber clearing post here…. but not in as fast of time….

Looking for a job, you are in the drivers seat… remember, burn no bridges it’s a VERY small world, but you are in a great place… enjoy and best of luck!

Have a Great “Jolts” Updated Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments

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Continued Improvement in the US Economy … Monthly BLS Employment Report .. Unemployment Rate, Interest Rate Reaction

Posted on August 9, 2021 by | Leave a comment

On Friday, August 6, 2021 the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) released the prior monthly (July 2021) employment related report. It is worth noting these are preliminary and will be adjusted in future months, but usually major adjustments are not in the picture….

Bottom Line:

943k hires in the month of July … NICE

5.4% Unemployment Rate as of July …Getting there (lower is better of course)

10 Year Treasuries Took note

BLS Unemployment Report for July 2021

The following Chart from the BLS may look unenthusiastic at first glance….. but hold on!

With the DRAMATIC volatility from the past year, the longer term chart does not give a true recent view…. Let’s look a little closer …. Much Better!

In much the same vein as above, the year view of the Unemployment rate does not look like a big deal as can be seen by the next chart!

On second thought, again with a closer view….. NICE! (We want a downward trending chart when measuring Unemployment)

10 Year Treasuries Wake Up

A measure of future expected growth, after some wrong sided players (shorting the 10 year in expectation of much higher rates faster) blew up pushing yields possibly incorrectly lower….

From Business Insider here

A hedge fund reportedly lost $1.5 billion in a bond market short-squeeze as bets on rising rates turned sour

These Good Economic Numbers put yields on the move higher (far right of chart)!

Continued improvement would likely force the FOMC to slow asset purchases…. as discussed here much desired by many !

Have a Great “Good Economic News” and analysis Monday!


John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, FOMC, General Financial Planning, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Retirement Planning

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JOLTS – Job Opening Measurement ALL TIME Highs – Great News for Job Seekers, Tough News for Employers

Posted on May 17, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Over the last two weeks during the Mauldin SIC conference (which we are still digesting), multiple speakers mentioned the Jolts Index -Job Openings Labor Turnover – A Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) that measures job openings.

Back in August of 2020, here we first took note of the movement in the Index as it made a turn at the bottom of this chart and actually surprised to the upside.

JOLTS Index Today

Fast forward to today and noting what the Mauldin speakers featured, this Index is at an ALL TIME high!

Key Takeaways

  • Tons of Jobs Available
  • Job Seekers Market
  • Tough on Employers
  • Could lead to higher wages (Inflation?)

Have a Great “JOLTS Update” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Retirement Planning

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