Inflation Expectations are… well, Inflating

One of my concerns is that the reduction in supply for products due to closed businesses and supply chain issues coupled with stimulus money will lead to inflation. The market is starting to expect more inflation as well.

This chart is the Treasury Yield (Nominal) minus the TIPS yield (real), which gives you inflation expectations.

When the crisis first hit, inflation expectations for the next 5 to 10 years crashed and were at less than 0.5% per year.

Now inflation expectations are 1.2% per year for the next 5-years and 1.4% for the next 10-years, up quite a bit from the bottom.

I expect inflation expectations will continue to increase from here, giving a boost to Gold, TIPS, and firms with good dividends and pricing power.

Cases Up, Recovery Down

While cases have continued to rise, the recovery in the most impacted industries as stalled. Here is updated restaurant data from OpenTable and TSA passengers.

Year over year change in Restaurants and TSA Passengers

The question is how much this will affect the economy overall. We should be able to get some idea when this week’s jobless claims data comes out.