Harris aims at stubbornly high prices
Aug 16 (Reuters) -Vice President Kamala Harris' speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday will focus on economics, and specifically around her plans to lower costs and target "corporate price-gouging" if she is elected president, according to her campaign.
Inflation has been a persistent sore spot for American consumers, overshadowing an otherwise healthy economy with a strong job market. Prices at first rose fast thanks to supply shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the rapid recovery in consumer demand gave companies the power to keep lifting them even as the supply environment improved.
Now, though, the rate of consumer inflation is slowing following a series of large interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. But U.S. shoppers still feel the pinch of the increases in the cost of everyday goods over the last few years.
For instance, the inflation shock lifted housing and food costs to such a degree they are notably higher today than would have been expected had previous price trends held up. The inflation updraft was not quite universal, though: Medical services costs are now modestly below trend.
Recent quarterly earnings reports suggest Americans are reining in spending on big-ticket purchases due to higher rates, and are trading down to buy cheaper items because of costs. Against that backdrop, government data also shows a measure of margins for retailers and wholesalers has diminished sharply from very high levels when inflation was at its worst.
That said, overall operating margins for S&P 500 Index corporations - among the largest U.S. companies - remain above the pre-pandemic trend, but it is not the case across all sectors. Margins for companies providing communications services - everything from mobile phone contracts to home entertainment - are among the most elevated relative to the decade prior to COVID.
The Biden administration has accused companies of "shrinkflation," that is, keeping prices the same while reducing the volume of goods inside packaging - a boost to margins.
The Biden administration, along with several states, has argued that market share concentration in some sectors is one force limiting consumer choice and therefore aggravating inflation.
Indeed, the White House has intervened to try to stop a merger between grocery giants Kroger KR.N and Albertsons ACI.N. Several states, mostly in the Western U.S., have joined the effort to kill the deal.
Inflation and price level shock https://reut.rs/4doXqx4
Diminishing pricing power https://reut.rs/46MiD1n
S&P 500 operating margins since COVID-19 https://reut.rs/4dFWX9s
A Kroger-Albertsons merger would rival Walmart's grocery share https://reut.rs/4dmKebT
Reporting by David Gaffen and Dan Burns; additional reporting by Savyata Mishra; editing by Jonathan Oatis
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
