Read the highlights of this week’s commentary from Helios:
Inflation slowed, but only slightly, with the April’s Consumer Price Index rising 8.3% over the last year and 0.3% over the last month. This is down from the 8.5% annual increase in March but a slower decline than the 8.1% increase that economists had expected. Rising prices continue to spill over and accelerate in the services sectors while slowing in durable goods. The softening in goods, as well as energy, helped the annual figure decline and offset increases in services and food.
The University of Michigan’s preliminary Consumer Sentiment reading for May dropped significantly to 59.1. It had popped in April, but that proved to be temporary according to the latest readings, which are below March’s figure.
Turmoil in crypto markets ramped up this week as so-called stablecoins lost their peg to the dollar and Bitcoin briefly fell below $30K for the first time since last summer. According to the WSJ, over a trillion dollars have been lost in cryptocurrencies since November.
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