In today’s Steady Investor, we look at current news and key factors that we believe are impacting the market and what could be next for the economy such as:
Supermarkets Expecting Higher Prices are Stockpiling Food – The shoe is on the other foot when it comes to stockpiling at the grocery store. During the throes of the pandemic, it was consumers stockpiling non-perishables like rice, soup, and famously, toilet paper. Today, it’s the supermarkets doing the stockpiling. Grocery stores are concerned about rising prices and have been stocking up on a wide range of goods from sugar to packaged goods to frozen meat. Some grocery store executives are anticipating high price increases in the near future, and they are building inventory to protect profit margins. Executive worries may be justified – General Mills, Campbell Soup, and J.M. Smucker are among a smattering of food makers that have announced rising prices based on higher input costs. At the same time, the pandemic has also pushed grocery sales higher as households cook and eat more at home, with grocery sales rising about 15% from two years prior.1 The food business has ultimately found itself in a feedback loop – consumers are buying more, food retailers are stockpiling more, and the increasing demand is putting even more pressure on prices and supply chains already squeezed by higher transport costs and rising wages.
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The Highly-Anticipated Consumption Boom is Here, and It’s Giving Workers Leverage – Spending volume on consumer goods is over 10% higher than it was before the recession, but recent data suggests consumers are pivoting their spending towards in-person activities, like restaurants, bars, travel and hotels. The resurgence of service-oriented spending has also led to a surge in hiring in the retail and hospitality industry, which accounted for about 50% of all hires in June. Restaurants and other hospitality businesses added 343,000 jobs in June, while retailers saw a 67,000 jump. Consumer demand begets labor demand, and that’s giving workers leverage in the economy. Average hourly wages for retail workers were up 8.6% in June 2021 compared to February 2020 (before the shutdown), and wages for restaurants and other hospitality workers also saw a 7.9% jump. Employers have also been so eager – and perhaps even desperate – to attract new workers that they are offering signing bonuses of up to $1,500.3
Oil and Gas Prices Keep Going Up – Oil prices have soared past $70 a barrel, approaching a six-year high and putting pressure on gas prices across the country. Demand has returned to the global economy and the U.S. faster than supply has kept up. Last year, OPEC cut output by 9.7 million barrels a day, but they have only retraced about 4 million barrels of that production since. In OPEC’s June meeting to increase production, the United Arab Emirates balked at an agreement to increase production by 400,000 barrels a day each month through late 2022, even though OPEC data suggests the market needs an additional 2 million barrels a day by the end of the year. Without additional supply, oil prices could remain sticky in the months ahead.4
Cargo Shipping Costs Have Soared, Increasing Price Pressures – The cost to ship containers from Asia to the U.S. and Europe is going up fast. The average price to ship a 40-foot container across the world was $8,399, which is four times the amount it cost just one year ago. In just the past two months, the cost has jumped by 53.5%! But perhaps more importantly, the cost of shipping a container from China to major ports on the U.S. West Coast cost some $12,000, which is also remarkably higher than it cost a year ago. The causes of higher shipping rates almost all point to supply and demand imbalances – as U.S. and European consumers get vaccinated and re-engage with the economy by spending, demand for goods is outpacing business’s ability to restock inventory. The disruptions and dislocations to supply chains are creating shipping backlogs and putting pressure on prices.5
Are You Ready for Retirement? Here’s the truth – if you start preparing for your retirement now, you will have a better advantage when making future financial decisions.
To help you do this, I recommend reading our Retirement Guide.6 This guide will give you a step-by-step outline of how you can plan for a successful financial future, and it provides our answers to critical questions like:
If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more about retirement planning, click on the link below to get your free guide today!
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