Rent vs. buy – it is a big question with significant financial implications. This month’s chart, which tracks year-over-year growth of monthly rent and mortgage payments since the early 1980s, compares the cost of renting vs. buying a home.

More than 90% of S&P 500 companies have reported Q1 2023 earnings, with results exceeding expectations, with 78% reporting Q1 earnings that surpassed their estimates.

Fewer container imports indicate the economy is reverting to pre-pandemic norms. This drop could help alleviate supply chain bottlenecks and ease inflationary pressures, a positive development after inflation rose to a 40-year high during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, businesses and individuals flooded banks with new deposits. As the Fed raises interest rates and customers look for higher yields, the banking industry is under considerable pressure.

In the past two years, the U.S. consumer has been a big part of the country's strong economic growth. Rising wages, multiple fiscal stimulus checks, and easy access to cheap credit have helped.

Today international stocks currently trade at more attractive valuations than U.S. stocks after a decade of underperformance.

The U.S. housing market is experiencing a significant slowdown after two years of rapid growth.

Stock market volatility is rising this year after a relatively calm 2021. Financial markets are experiencing bigger moves up and down as investors navigate a long list of events.

Early inflation pressures were attributed to clogged supply chains and strong demand overwhelming limited supply, but a new source of inflation is gaining attention as supply chains normalize – wage inflation.

After declining during the pandemic, data shows consumer credit usage is rising again and is now back above pre-pandemic levels.

Why is productivity declining? One potential explanation is that pandemic-related themes, such as remote work and inflation, make measuring productivity more difficult and distort the data.

The ongoing housing market slowdown indicates the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases are already impacting the economy.