MARKET RECAP

Stocks got hit on Thursday and then again on Friday, falling 2.4% on Thursday and almost 3% on Friday. Declines were only minor on Thursday until the sell-off in the final hour which was steep in anticipation of the Friday inflation report. The inflation report turned out to be worse than expected, the CPI was up by 8.6% compared to the prior May and was the biggest increase since December of 1981. Energy was up by 34.6% and groceries by 11.9%. The report was so bad that analysts began calling for a 1% increase in interest rates at the Fed’s next meeting as opposed to the half-point that the Fed has already signaled. For the week, US stocks were down by 5.06%, international by 4.11%, and bonds by 1.53%.

The ECB said it would increase interest rates from minus 0.5% to zero or higher by September with more increases after that.

Multinational companies have taken losses of about $59 billion from either closing up shop in Russia, cutting back, or just being impacted by their diving economy.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment gauge fell to a record low of 50.2.

The 2-year treasury is now yielding greater than 3% (3.047%).

Home price increases are starting to slow. Active home listings have increase year over year for five weeks in a row according to Realtor.com and the growth of median listing price has slowed. New home sales are down 16.6%.

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